Me, My Students and the Dead
by Anime PJ
Summary: My life was good. I enjoyed my job, I had a great girlfriend and everything seemed to be good for me. Then it happened. The rise of the undead, the zombie apocalypse. And throughout it I had but one mission: to protect my students and the woman I love from the dangers of this new world. OC/Shizuka. Rated M for lemons in the future. Slow updates - be patient.
1. Zombies … Not in the Job Description

**All I can say is:** **theboblinator** **, challenge accepted. If any of you are wondering what I mean by that, basically, the author I mentioned and underlined just then (he's great, check him out) set up a challenge in his story** _ **HOTD: Jack's Story**_ **which was to have an OC teacher survive with the main group and is paired with Shizuka. So, as I said, challenge accepted (even though it's been fucking ages since the challenge was issued to begin with! I apologise for taking so long).**

 **That being said: you know the premise, it's fairly simple, let's get the fuck on with this!**

* * *

Zombies … This was NOT in the Job Description!

I was always fascinated with the concept of zombies, I'm not going to lie. Whether they were undead, slow, lumbering cannibals or rage-induced, fast, frenzied psychopaths, I always had this strange love for them that I really couldn't explain. I'd never carried such a love for any other movie monster, so why the hell were zombies so special to me? Was it the horror that awaited victims of a bite? No, vampires did that, too … it didn't matter how much I thought about it, I was never sure why I loved them so much.

I bet you're wondering why I'm rabbiting on about zombies. Well the answer will become apparent rather soon, I assure you.

I suppose it's time to start off the story you're all here to hear, yes? Very well. First of all, I think I should give you my name; manners and all that, you know? My name is Ren Xander Levitt. A bit of a weird name, right? Well, basically, my mother was a Japanese woman who moved to England for a job opportunity, where she met my father. They never ended up marrying before my mother tragically passed away. I always thought that the fact they never married was a bit odd, considering the fact that I was 5-years-old at the time. But that's where my name came from. I had my father's last name: Levitt. And my mother gave me my first name of Ren, since she wanted me to have a Japanese name. Xander was just a middle name they both liked.

Anyway, 20 years later I was living and working in Japan as a teacher at Fujimi Academy. At 25-years-old, I had shoulder-length, slicked back black hair. My eyes were a shadowy blue that looked black in certain lighting conditions, which actually unnerved quite a lot of my fellow staff members, with one exception. I wore a black business suit with bright blue pin-stripes. I'll be the first to admit that I wasn't exactly as muscular as quite a lot of men were in their 'prime' but I could certainly hold my own in a fight if one ever came to me. The only real distinguishing feature I had was a long scar going across my forehead; it was a souvenir of an incident I had when I was younger, in which I fell off my bike. I was a rather clumsy little shit, a habit which I have thankfully grown out of.

But yeah, I worked at Fujimi Academy as a teacher. The subject I taught was English. It was pretty ideal, actually, considering that I was technically from England. Though my mother had planned to make it a priority for me to learn Japanese, a priority my father was sure to see to after her untimely death.

Then we have my arrival in Japan. I moved over here about two years ago. My primary ambition since I was a kid was to be a teacher; it appealed to me due to the fact that I'd always wanted to make a contribution to society, and teaching the world's youth seemed a great way to do so. It had to be in Japan, though. I'd always known I was going to visit Japan, it being my late mother's homeland and all, so when the time came for me to choose a career I thought teaching in Japan would be an ideal way to see the country my mum came from. So I went to Japan, found a high school with a job vacancy, and I got the job.

And that's when I met _her._

Shizuka Marikawa: the school nurse. She was absolutely _stunning._ Her hair was long and blonde, so long in fact that it came down to her knees. Her eyes were dark brown and beautiful. Now, most men would have first taken notice of the fact that her breasts were … let's just say 'sizeable' for now, shall we? We'll get into details later. But I, having always tried my hardest to be the perfect gentleman, only paid attention to that little detail later on.

Of course she wasn't the _only_ person I met. The others just aren't really worth mentioning, but I'll list a few of them off for conveniences sake. There was Mr. Takayama, the janitor, who I actually got along pretty well with. Ms. Hayashi who I never really spoke to at all. Mr. Wakisaka, who was one of the main people who were a little freaked out because of my eyes. Then, finally, there was Mr. Shido … I fucking _hated_ the man.

Shido was a massive pervert, that was what made me dislike him initially. But the man is a God damn snake, that retching parasite that feeds on whatever it can get its slimy teeth into. He bullied the students (which I tried to stop, but he had way too much power over the school system for my comfort), he looked up the female students' skirts if they happened to drop something … and he was constantly staring at Shizuka's boobs! That pissed me off more than anything else could have.

You see, while the other teachers really didn't bother that much with 'the new guy,' Shizuka made an active effort to make me feel welcome. We were friends pretty much instantly. During the first week of work—and every week after that—I made it a habit to go down to the infirmary during my lunch break in order to spend time with a friendly face. That is assuming my students didn't need me for anything, of course. She was a rather ditzy and air-headed, but I found that more of an endearing quality rather than something to make fun of. She was nice, friendly, funny (okay, she _tried_ to be, but the failed attempts just made her seem cuter), and over time I found myself spending more and more time with her. About half a year into my new job, I realised that I'd fallen in love with my co-worker.

It hadn't been all that hard to come out with, to be honest. I know most people say that telling someone you love them is the hardest thing there is, but not for me; I'd never had any problems telling people _exactly_ how I felt about them at any given point … Like how I never made even the slightest attempt to hide my hatred of Shido. So we were alone in the infirmary, I was helping her pack up her things after school was finished, we were chatting nicely. Then, as we were finishing, I asked her out. She accepted, after much blushing occurred, and that night I took her out to dinner. Nothing fancy, of course, didn't want to go too overboard on the first date, but it was nice, simple and she seemed to enjoy herself. As the night drew to a close I told her about how she was probably the only person I'd met so far who'd been friendly to me, and that she was now the main reason I looked forward to going to work so much. Then I told her how I felt.

It may have been relatively easy to come out with, but trust me, the long silence that came afterwards was _killing_ me on the inside. So many questions racked my brain: What if she doesn't feel the same? What if she only wants to be friends? What if she already has a boyfriend? What if I've scared her off by doing this?

But then the most extraordinary thing happened. She kissed me. _She_ kissed _me._ She told me about how I wasn't like other men, about how I was the only one who didn't see her chest and think of her as a piece of meat. She told me that I was now one of only two people who she really felt close to. Then she told me that … she felt the same way about me as I did about her. And I felt my heart skip a beat. I'd never been happier in my life.

Any previous thoughts I'd had about ever going back to England went straight out the window. I called my dad and told him so, and he was happy for me. He wished me luck and we still kept up a regular correspondence.

Between work and going out on dates with Shizuka and … other things (don't look so shocked, we're both consenting adults) I found that I was having the best time of my life. The only really scary moment was when Shizuka introduced me to her friend Rika, who was briefly back from working for the SAT, and she told me she'd break my neck if I ever hurt Shizuka. I reassured her as best I could that I would never do anything to hurt her friend … I actually think I came across as a bit of a pussy. Her laughter at my expense further cemented this fact. After she finished laughing she made a comment about going to bed so me and Shizuka could 'get busy' and left us both blushing on the couch, still laughing as she went. Though … she wasn't necessarily wrong about what we did that night …

A year and a half after getting with Shizuka, life was great and I couldn't have been happier.

Then the day came when everything changed.

~Me, My Students and the Dead~

I was in a good mood. It was late in the day, just after lunch as a matter of fact—I, as usual, spent my lunch break with Shizuka, my ever-beautiful girlfriend—and I was on my way to the next lesson I had to teach. I always looked forward to the lessons I taught, since I wholeheartedly enjoyed my job. The students were pleasant, with a few minor exceptions, and it felt fulfilling to impart something I had a lot of knowledge of onto the younger generation. If only all the students took it seriously. Rather a lot of them tended to skip my classes on a semi-regular basis.

I hummed as I walked. I think my good mood is infectious, because a lot of the students I passed on the way to the classroom smiled cheerfully at me as I passed. A few of the less pleasant ones laughed at me, thinking me some kind of freak, but—and forgive me for saying this about my students—fuck them, I was in a good mood. I continued in my walk to my classroom and came across a student leaning against the side of a stairwell.

Takashi Komuro was a slim young man with spiked, unkempt raven black hair. His eyes were brown, not dark but striking all the same. He wore the basic male uniform for the school—the differences in uniform between male and female here in Japan still baffled me somewhat—except that he also wore a red t-shirt beneath. I found that as of late he had been brooding rather often, but whenever I asked what had him in such low spirits he always told me that it didn't matter. As much as I wanted to keep my students as happy as possible, I found it would be rather rude to pry into business that they were clearly trying to keep to themselves.

"Afternoon, Komuro," I greeted him, taking a brief stop in the stairwell as I did so. He looked up at me and attempted some sort of smile. He failed. "Any particular reason you're standing around here rather than heading to class?"

"Same old same old," he told me. He dropped his poor imitation of a smile, seeming to realise that I knew he was in a bad mood. He sighed. "Forgive me for saying, Mr Levitt, but I don't really feel like I'm up for going to class right now."

"As a teacher I believe I am required to advise you against skipping classes." I let a soft smile spread over my face. "But as a person I believe that if you have some personal issues to sort out, then by all means take all the personal time that you need. Just be sure to catch up with some studying later, okay? You may not be skipping my class, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna let you just goof off."

He gave a small, if slightly forced, chuckle. "Thanks, sir." He turned his head back so that he could continue staring out into space.

"No problem, Komuro." I turned and carried on towards my classroom, quickening my pace now as to avoid being late to a lesson I was giving. I know it's wrong for a teacher to play favourites, but there were a select few students that I felt closer to than any of the others; Takashi was one of them. It's not that I spent any more time with them than I did the rest of my students. No, it's more the fact that most of the other students saw me as an annoyance, one of their torturers in the dungeon that they saw school as, and very few of them treated me as any more than something they simply had to put up with.

Then there were students like Takashi. There were a few of them: Kohta Hirano, Rei Miyamoto, Hisashi Igou. There were a few more, but those were the main ones. They showed the respect for me that none of the other students had and they almost seemed to treat me like I was one of their fellow students … which might not be far off, actually, considering that when I first met them I was still new to Japan and they, on occasion, helped me to understand things that I hadn't beforehand. Honestly, if it weren't for the job I think I'd see them as friends rather than students.

Soon I arrived at the classroom I would be teaching in to find the students chatting animatedly, awaiting my arrival. Upon my entry they quieted down, though a few whispers could be heard here and there. That was fine. It was pointless telling them to stop, they'd only continue as soon as I stopped speaking.

"Hello, class," I greeted them, a warm, encouraging smile on my face. I found that having a positive attitude towards one's students went a long way in getting them to listen to you … as long as said positive attitude didn't descend into simple down-talking. I found that teenager's hated being spoken to, or treated, like children. "Now, today we will be …"

It was the usual routine from there. I went over a few things, writing them down on the blackboard, telling the students that making notes would probably be a good idea. It was almost boring … _almost,_ I didn't find my job quite so dull that repetition made it any less interesting for me. If anything, the repeat in routine from day to day actually made things easier. The students may not have liked me all that much, but they still listened, and that was all that mattered in the end.

About fifteen minutes into the lesson I heard a little commotion coming from down the hall. A few students ran past the classroom, though they moved too quickly for me to get a very good look at who they were. Then the cracking of the school announcement system blared to life and a shaky voice was heard by all.

"Attention! Attention all students!" the voice over the speakers said. The voice was full of panic and fear … and in a start I realised that it was the principle who was speaking to us. "There is an emergency situation taking place inside the school right now! All students are instructed to remain calm and follow staff members to safety! I repeat, all students are to—" The sound of groaning could be heard faintly over the loudspeakers. "Wh-What are you doing in here …? Wh-what are you doing!? Stay back! Stay ba—" Silence.

Nobody in the classroom said a word. Not even me. Looking back on it, I suppose that I should have started rallying the students into some sense of order immediately after the principle's voice had been cut off, but I was just frozen up at what had just happened. I'd … just listened to a man die; at least that's what I assumed, I had no real proof of that until a few minutes later. So many thoughts ran through my mind in the next few seconds alone: _What the hell was that? Is he okay? Who attacked him? What's this 'emergency situation'? Has anyone been killed? Is … is Shizuka okay?_

Screaming in the halls. That was the first thing I heard after my thoughts were cut off. Screaming and footsteps, rapidly approaching and passing by the classroom. Hordes of students panicking, screaming, bolting down the hallways in an attempt to escape whatever fate had befallen our school's principle. It was then that my senses finally snapped back into place and I looked around at the terrified faces of my students.

"All right, everyone, let's just keep calm h—" I was cut off yet again when a few students stood from their seats and ran for the doors of the classroom. "Hey! We need to keep calm here, people! Don't panic, it's all going to be okay! _Why won't you listen to me!?_ " My speech devolved to English at the end as the stress made me subconsciously switch to my native tongue. It was all pointless, though, as after the first few students had left the others panicked and fled, too. In no time at all I was alone in my classroom, nothing but my own thoughts and the sounds of panicked teenagers in the hallways to keep me company.

I was terrified. With the amount of students running through the halls, there was likely such a frenzy that none would notice if they ended up trampling their fellow students. With this in mind, I darted to the door of the room and threw it open, stepping out into the chaos of the school building. It was not a sea, but a flowing river of people, all running in different directions. Pushing. Shoving. It was a free-for-all Battle Royale, and no clear winner could be seen. I did my best to get their attention.

"Hey! You lot! Calm down! Stop panicking! Will you all just _listen_ to me! You're not going to get anywhere if you keep going like this!" None of them paid me any heed. And even those that noticed me barely spared me a glance. Then more screaming, the sort brought on by pain and suffering. I turned towards the source and prepared myself to help the poor soul who was in such pain … only to freeze on the spot once more. What I saw in that hallway was an image that would haunt me for the rest of my life.

It was one of the other teachers—it may have been the janitor, but I really couldn't tell because of all the blood—and he was on his knees … _biting_ one of the students on the throat! The student's cries went unanswered by all, including myself, as the abomination that had once been human ripped flesh from his neck, spraying streams of dark, shining, red blood all over the floor and nearby walls. I was horror-struck. What manner of world are we living in where this sort of thing can happen? There was only one word, one very scary word, that entered into my mind upon seeing the horrific image before me: _Zombies._ But that would be impossible … wouldn't it? They aren't supposed to exist outside of books and movies and TV shows … so why the fuck was this happening!?

My frozen state lasted but a moment, and my survival instincts took over my body. Before I realised I had moved I found myself back inside the solitude of the classroom. Breathing heavily, I sat at my desk and rested my head in my hands. Sheer terror is the only thing that comes anywhere _near_ to the emotions I was feeling at the time.

 _Zombies are real,_ was the first coherent thought my mind could come up with. _Those filthy, undead, terrifying things are real. And they're here. Right now. What do I do? I have no weapons, where could I find weapons? The janitor kept a bunch of sports equipment in his storage closet, so I could check there. When should I go? Now? No. Wait for the panic to die down. It is … a horrible thing to do, but those kids won't listen to me, I have to save my own ass. Where to go from there? I need to find people, other survivors. I need to find …_ My breath caught in my throat as my emotions came flooding back full-force, kicking my survival instincts out of the driver's seat. _Shizuka. I need to find Shizuka._

My sense of terror increased ten-fold. Was Shizuka even alive? She _had_ to be. She couldn't have … I didn't even want to think about it. I _knew_ she was alive. I could _feel_ it. But I wasn't an idiot. Worrying about Shizuka wouldn't do me any damn good if I died on the way over, so the plan to wait until the panic died down still stood. I felt a guilt stronger than any I'd ever felt before at letting my students fend for themselves, but it was like yelling at a brick wall … none of them would listen …

I was surprised to find that the noise outside the room ceased after about ten minutes. I took a deep breath, gulped down any fear that was grabbing at me, and pulled open the door. The hallway was chaos. There was blood absolutely everywhere; the walls looked like they'd been coated in the stuff. There were several zombies— _No,_ I thought, _this is real life. Calling them that is disrespectful and insulting to the people they once were. But what do I call them?_ There were several … _things_ in the hallway, feasting on the corpses of the dead, some of whom were still writhing or twitching as they had not yet lost consciousness. The undead in the hallway looked up for a moment upon my exiting of the classroom … and then just went back to their meals. I didn't understand. They looked _right at me_ and didn't acknowledge my presence.

 _Maybe … they're blind?_ The thought brought hope surging into my being. I hesitated a moment before taking my next action. It was a risk, but I decided that it was worth it. I walked slowly over to one of the feasting undead and knelt down in front of it … directly in front of it. It didn't react. _So they really are._ I let a small smirk slip onto my face. _In that case, getting to Shizuka should be simple enough._ Hope probably wasn't an emotion it was wise to feel during the apparent apocalypse, but I simply could not help it.

I stood up and began to walk down the hallway as carefully as I could, determined not to make the undead aware of my presence. It was a simple enough affair; they were all too busy feasting to even notice my slightly faster footsteps. For me, however … it was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. All around me, the bodies of my students were being devoured, most if not all of them rising from the grave shortly thereafter. I felt sick. I had to fight to keep bile from rising out of my stomach. _I need to be strong,_ I reminded myself. _If I come across anybody else, they might need my help. I can't be puking my guts up when that happens._ With the chaos having died down, I assumed that anybody left alive would have more sense than to just randomly run around in search of an exit.

After a while of manoeuvring through hallways of walking corpses, I arrived at my first destination: The janitor's closet. Somebody had already been there, I noticed, as there was a baseball bat and a broom missing. Curiously, the head of the broom was sitting on the floor just outside the closet; I guessed that somebody had broken it off to use as some sort of weapon. I looked through the closet myself, and I found a cricket bat. I think the _Shaun of the Dead_ joke practically makes itself. I felt infinitely more confident now that I had a weapon.

Next order of business, then: Shizuka. She would have been in the infirmary when all this shit went down, so that was where I would go to find her. I made my way through the hallways once again, slightly confused now that I thought about the surprisingly small amount of undead that there were around. It made me nervous. Where were they? I thought that they were probably scattered after pursuing the students around the school.

After a few moments of silent contemplation, I found a hallway with a slightly larger undead population than I was used to. There were nine, maybe ten, I didn't really count them. It occurred to me that there were too many for me to comfortably go through the hallway. There was only one option: fight. Breathing heavily, I raised the cricket bat in preparation for combat. They couldn't see me, which meant that I had the advantage. I stepped forwards carefully, keeping my eyes on the undead, but occasionally turning my head to make sure none came from behind. I got close to one of them. I raised the bat. I was shaking, but I had to do it. With a gulp of hesitation, I brought the bat down hard on the thing's head, cracking it's skull open and causing brain matter and blood to spill out of it. The undead crumpled to the floor, lifeless.

I did this eight or nine more times in that hallway. It was harder after the first, as the noise I'd made killing it had roused the others. Though I found that if I was careful, I could simply slip around them and hit them from behind. In a few minutes the hallway was empty except for the crumpled corpses of the students. It felt horrible. I couldn't stop myself this time; I ran for the window leading to the outside, and I vomited out of it. There was no other way of looking at it, I'd just bashed in the heads of what used to be my students. I felt sick, horrified … but I was alive. And I needed to find Shizuka. Keeping her in my mind kept me strong, and I'd be damned if I took any longer than was needed to get to her.

I wiped the excess puke off of my mouth and kept going. The infirmary was not far now. I kept moving, avoiding as many of the undead as I could but fighting if I had the need to. It took no more than ten minutes for me to reach the door to the infirmary … and that's how I found out where all the undead had been. There were loads of them, at least compared to what I'd seen thus far, and they were all banging on the infirmary door. Along with the growing fear, I also felt relief. If they were trying to get in there, that meant somebody was alive in there.

Just as I steeled myself to charge in, however, something terrifying happened. The undead broke through the door to the infirmary. I froze up, shocked that it had taken them so little time to get through. The cries of pain from what sounded like a male student brought me back to my senses, and I charged forward, my weapon raised. There may have been a lot of them, but at that moment I did not care. I ran in there and smashed a skull in. Then another. Then another. I could see Shizuka on the other side of the room, though I didn't have the time on my hands to take in her expression. I just kept on fighting. Eventually I noticed somebody else join in the attack on the undead. I was grateful for that; I didn't think adrenaline would have saved me forever.

The rest passed by in a blur. There was blood and brain and bone. By the end of it there was nothing to differentiate the infirmary from a morgue. I felt something collide with me, and for a moment I thought it was one of the undead, but it was Shizuka, hugging me tightly. After I got over the shock of the fight, I hugged her back, holding her close. It hit me just how scared for her I was, and I resolved that I would never let them get her. Not while I was breathing.

The person who had joined the fight midway was a student. She was a third-year. She had long, straight, dark purple hair that came down on her face in a triangular fringe that barely touched the bridge of her nose. Her eyes were a deep blue. She was quite tall compared to her fellow students, and very athletic. I recognised her as Saeko Busujima, the most promising student in the school's kendo club.

That's when I noticed the other student. He must have been the one I'd heard the undead attacking on the way in. My God … he looked awful. He was covered in blood, there were chunks missing from his flesh and bite marks all over his body. I gulped down some bile that was rising from my chest. I wanted to move forward, to comfort him before he bled out … but I just couldn't bring myself to move. My hug around Shizuka tightened as my breathing came out shaken. I felt like a failure; it was a teacher's job to safeguard their students, yet they'd been dying around me and I hadn't done a thing. What did that say about me?

Saeko proved herself a much braver person than me by approaching him, his body slumped against the wall, struggling for breath. Saeko knelt down in front of him. "I'm the captain of the kendo club, Saeko Busujima," she introduced herself to him. She placed a hand on his shoulder. "A sophomore. What's your name, kid?"

His voice came out choked and I could tell he was struggling to speak. "I-Ishi … Ishi Kazu …" He coughed up blood in between words. Once again I began to feel sick.

"Ishi, you did a great job protecting Dr Marikawa. I commend your courage. You _do_ know what happens to you when you get bitten? Do you want your parents or friends to see you like that? If the answer is no, I will end your life as painlessly as I can. But I've never killed anyone before."

I knew what she was getting at immediately. The thought that this spread exactly like it did in the movies _had_ occurred to me, but I had chosen to ignore it, finding it too horrible to think about with the present circumstances.

Ishi looked afraid. It would appear he knew what she meant, too. His look of fear remained on his face for a few moments, before being replaced by a light smile. "P-please do that." He closed his eyes, preparing the inevitable death. Saeko stood up and raised her bokken in a striking pose.

"W-wait!" Shizuka cried, prying herself from my arms as she started forward. "What are you gonna do?"

"Shizuka," I said, grabbing her arm and cutting off anything Saeko might have said in reply. "Busujima knows what she's doing … there isn't much else to be done." I turned to address Saeko. "Unless … you want me to do it? As a teacher, it's my duty to help my students in any way I can." I secretly hoped she refused … and I felt ashamed. Wishing blood on another's hands is disgusting, especially that of a person so young … but I felt sick after killing the dead ones. The thought of doing that to a student who was still alive sickened and terrified me. _But I am a teacher,_ I argued with myself, _so if it comes down to it … I will do what I must._

"No, thank you, Mr Levitt," Saeko refused me. "I appreciate you offering to take this burden away, but I'm afraid you look terrible after just dealing with Them. I would hate for you to worsen." She was such a good student. I was glad that she'd survived.

I nodded and she turned to do the deed. Shizuka looked horrified, so I pulled her back and hugged her again, making sure to keep her eyes away from the scene unfolding before us. I kept watching though. I felt it would be disrespectful to not at least witness the final moments of such a brave young man. Saeko raised her bokken … and swung it down. There was a lot more blood than I'd expected, the crimson flying all over the wall, but at least it was quick. That was more than what some of the other students had gotten.

"I'm glad you're all right," I whispered to Shizuka as I hugged her. "Don't worry about a thing from now on. I'll keep you safe." I hoped I would be good for that, at least.

She smiled slightly; only a small smile, her eyes still held much sadness. "Of course you will." She leaned up and placed a small, very brief kiss on my lips. "Are _you_ okay?" she asked me, her face filled with concern. Apparently Saeko was right, my stress really was showing.

"… I'm fine," I lied. I don't entirely think she believed me, but she nodded none the less. She broke the hug, but kept a tight hold of my hand. I turned to Saeko, who had graciously allowed us to have our moment, and said, "We should probably get out of here now."

Before she could respond, more of Them—I decided that what Saeko called them was probably the best thing to say—came in through the broken door, knocking down what little of it still remained. I raised my cricket bat and prepared to fight, and Saeko also raised her bokken. A smirk formed on her face that I was a little unnerved by. I shook my head and chose to ignore it, instead focusing on Them.

The fight was short and brutal. Saeko took out more than me, I think, but I still bashed quite a few heads in. I was still horrified by the situation, but it was fight or die, and my instincts took over whenever combat was entered. Afterwards I felt sick, but I didn't have time to waste. Shizuka suggested we head to the faculty room, which I agreed with. After allowing Shizuka to grab some medical supplies in a case, we left the infirmary and set about navigating the corridors of the school.

At first there was nothing to be seen but blood and pieces of torn flesh. It would appear that most of Them in the area were just killed by us in the infirmary. It was quite nice, actually, being able to spend a little time without fighting. I didn't let my guard down, though, as that would have been suicidal. Eventually we came across hallways containing some of Them, but Saeko made a point of just pushing them to the side and continuing to walk on.

"The faculty room," Saeko sighed eventually. "Jesus, what a pain in the ass."

"But all the car keys are in that room, that's where they keep them," Shizuka reasoned. He hand was still tightly held in mine, but she had to jog a little to keep up with the fast pace that me and Saeko were walking.

"I still don't understand why we weren't allowed to keep them on us," I said. I sighed to myself. Now really wasn't the time to be making complaints about my job.

Another one of Them was ahead of us in the hallway. Saeko simply knocked it aside with her bokken and kept on walking.

"Why don't you just kill them?" Shizuka asked. "You've done so well this far, why stop now?"

Saeko stopped at a corner and looked around it for any sign of company. "One or two at a time, believe me, no problem," she answered. "And I wouldn't think twice about doing it. But they come at you in packs. And don't be fooled, they're a lot stronger than they look. Once they grab you, it's hard to get loose."

"We could actually walk straight past Them if we moved carefully," I told the two of them. "On my way down to the infirmary I found out They seem to be blind. None of Them saw me, and They only attacked if I made a lot of noise. Just something worth thinking about."

"That may be the case, but we have no time to lose," Saeko said. "There are too many of Them here. Blind or not, we can't avoid that many forever." I saw her point and didn't mention it again.

Shizuka made to move forward and ended up tripping over a loose floor mat. "Oh, I hate these stupid floor mats. Jeez." She rubbed her head, her face read from either embarrassment or frustration, I couldn't tell which. I could tell, however, that it was adorable. I held out my hand to help her up, and she accepted it.

"What you're wearing isn't exactly made for running," Saeko pointed out, a deadpan look on her face. She knelt down, grabbed the bottom of Shizuka's skirt, and before anyone could say anything she ripped it right up to the hip, leaving just enough material to hold it on, and giving me a full view of Shizuka's gorgeous leg. _Mind out of the gutter, asshole, you've seen it all before on several different occasions._ I couldn't really argue with my brain's logic, so I stopped thinking about it.

"Are you crazy!?" Shizuka yelled at Saeko. "This is christianed yore!" **(A/N: I may be an idiot, but I can't understand what she says here, so I just went with what it sounded like)**

Saeko sighed. "Your clothes or your life. Which is more important?"

Shizuka spent a few moments struggling for an answer. Eventually she exclaimed, "Both are!"

"Shizuka," I said, a softness to my voice I wasn't entirely sure I was capable of at the time. "As much as I know you love your clothes, I would rather have _you_ here than a pile of fabric." I smiled softly at her, lifting my hand up and rubbing her cheek. "So just put up with it for now, yeah? Remember, I love you not your clothes … and that sounded a lot less dirty in my head."

She gave a small giggle and then nodded. I took her hand in my own once more and we prepared to keep moving. Then I started hearing some strange banging noises from somewhere. _Are they … gunshots? But they can't be. We don't keep that sort of stuff in the school. Unless … it might be one of those gas-powered nail guns from the construction classroom. Those are really fucking loud._

"Wh-what was that?" Shizuka asked upon hearing the sound. She grabbed onto my arm with both hands, unintentionally causing me to flinch when she accidentally hit my side with the case of medical supplies she was carrying.

"It sounded like it came from the … faculty room?" Saeko said, though she sounded unsure of it herself.

"Well that's quite convenient then, isn't it?" I said. "There might be more people there we can join up with." Saeko nodded at my statement and we kept on moving. The gunshots(?) kept going off, so I was sure that whoever was making the noise was still alive. I could only hope they would stay that way until we got to them.

All three of us froze as a blood-curdling scream tore through the building. That was it. Someone was in serious trouble. Knowing this, we began to hurry, sprinting through the school and towards the source of the noise.

We sprinted down a few corridors before we saw two others approaching the source of the noise from the opposite direction. One I recognised as Takashi, the other was Rei Miyamoto. She had strangely orange hair, brown eyes, and two bangs of hair that stuck up like antennae. She was wielding what looked like a spear, but upon closer inspection I could see that it was the long handle of the broom I had seen in the janitor's closet. We stopped in the middle of the hallway, facing the two of them, before looking to our side, seeing the source of the noise.

It was Kohta Hirano and Saya Takagi, surrounded by a small group of Them. Kohta had shoulder-length, black hair and large, square-rimmed glasses. He wore his uniform a lot more formally than most other students did, and I knew him as the victim of much bullying due to his weight issue. Some of it I stopped, some of it was … a more complicated matter. He was holding a gas-powered nail gun, but it was modified with pieces of wood, almost like the sight on an assault rifle. I had to admire his resourcefulness even in spite of the situation.

Saya Takagi was sitting on the floor, keeping one of Them at bay … by sticking a drill into its head. The drill was on and spinning, and the thing's blood was spraying in spurts out of its head. Saya's pink hair, styled in two pony tails on either side of her head, was becoming stained with blood, as was her uniform. She had her head turned away so that none of the blood would make it onto her face.

She was gritting her teeth and making a sound that was somewhere between growling and screaming. "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANY MORE!" she yelled in anguish. "SOMEONE PLEASE!"

"I'll take the right side," Saeko said.

"I'll hold the left," Rei said.

Then we all charged. No one bothered talking about which side they would take but those two. I ran in, raising my cricket bat to Them and bringing it down, sending brain matter, blood and bits of broken skull onto the floor. I was lost in adrenaline and instinct once again. I smashed, crushed and battered head after head, skull after skull, until there were no more of Them to deal with. All that was left was a rotting pile of corpses.

Saya was whimpering. She was staring at the dead creature in front of her in horror. The drill was still stuck in its head, though it was no longer spinning.

"Taka—" Kouta seemed to try and speak, though he was cut off as everyone began to run past him. He was knocked over by Shizuka accidentally as she herself past him. I sighed and walked over to him, holding out my hand to help him get up. He accepted it gratefully.

"Thanks, Mr Levitt," he thanked me. I nodded in acknowledgement and we both went to join the rest of the group, who were all gathered around Saya.

"Takagi … are you all right?" asked Rei in concern.

"M-Miyamoto …" Saya said, struggling through the tears she was obviously trying to hold back. I could see that she would cry soon. There was no holding it off forever.

"You already know the school doctor Ms Marikawa, right? And the English teacher Mr Levitt?" Saeko asked Takashi. "I'm Saeko Busujima from class 3-A."

"I'm Takashi Komuro from class 2-B," Takashi introduced himself.

"Ms Busujima, I remember you won the national championship last year," Rei said with a smile on her face. "I'm Rei Miyamoto. I'm in the spear martial arts club."

Kohta scratched the back of his head and said, "I-I'm Kohta Hirano from class B, just FYI."

"Nice to meet you," Saeko said to him, smiling. Kohta genuinely gasped at the fact that another student was being so polite to him. It made me feel really bad for him, actually …

"Why are you guys being all warm and fuzzy?" Saya asked. She had stood up from the ground and was looking around at all of is in annoyance. "Why are you being so polite to her, Miyamoto? You flunked last year, you're the same age, she's _not_ your elder."

"What are you talking about, Takagi?" Takashi asked.

"DON'T TALK TO ME LIKE I'M STUPID! I'M SMARTER THAN ALL OF YOU COMBINED!" Saya had a look of rage in her eyes that was, in a word, demonic. Even I was scared of her in that moment. "You should be lucky I'm even in the same school as you!" She looked down at herself and her expression dissolved into that of depression. "I'm … I'm a …" She looked to be on the verge of tears. I'd had enough. I'd seen a lot of students die that day, and I was going to take care of the ones who were still alive … no matter what.

"It's okay, it's all right," I said as I stepped towards her, briefly noting that Saeko was moving to do the same. I placed a hand on Saya's shoulder and smiled lightly. "That's enough. You'll be okay." I tried to sound as reassuring as I could, but I don't know how convincing I sounded.

Saya turned her head slowly towards a mirror and was silent upon seeing her reflection. "… Look at me …" she muttered, though because of the silence we all heard it. "All these blood stains … Now mom will have to … take it to the cleaners …" And finally the waterworks started. She tried her best to hold them in, but eventually loud sobs rang from her as a waterfall of tears cascaded down her face. She ended up clinging to the nearest person—which happened to be me—and held on for dear life, crying her eyes out. I wrapped my arms around her in a comforting embrace, determined to comfort her. I cared for my students greatly, and seeing one like this was killing me inside.

We stood there in silence, just outside the faculty room. The only sound that could be heard were Saya Takagi's sobs.

Needless to say, I didn't love zombies so much any more.

* * *

 **How was the first chapter? Did I do good? I'm not entirely sure, but I put my all into it, and that's all I can really say. It's also my glorious return to the first person format, and I'm really impressed with how much I've improved since I first started writing. What do you guys think? I tried to make the character more human than in most of the stories I've read, and I would like to think I've made his thoughts and feelings during the situation pretty realistic.**

 **Can I get your opinions on something for a second? You see, I'm in a bit of a struggle. How do I make Ren important to the group, without having him replace Takashi as leader? It's something I'm really having trouble with, and I'd appreciate the input. I want to keep Takashi as the leader because, not only is he extremely well-suited for the roll, but I find that it's important for his growth as a character. Any help and ideas you can give would be appreciated.**

 **I have another new story in the works _and_ a chapter for an already existing story. Which will come first? No idea. But my regular readers should be aware that there will be more content coming out relatively soon.**

 **Next Chapter: Escape from the Undead Academy**


	2. Escape from the Undead Academy

**Hello again, everyone! I am quite pleased with the reception I've gotten so far. It's always nice to know that my work is appreciated. Regarding Ren's place in the group, and taking into consideration the reviews I've gotten from you guys, I've decided to make him … moral support of sorts. He'll give advice when it's needed, and generally put the needs of the rest of the group before his own. I guess we could call him sort of an advisor for Takashi. Or, if you want to take it a step further, he's sort of the 'dad' of the group.**

 **Now, to answer some reviews.**

 **Theboblinator: Thank you. I still occasionally find it hard to believe that there's somebody who likes my writing this much. Well, as you can see at the top, Ren's role is pretty much what you said, so thanks for contributing! And as I told you in the PMs, that new story is the _One Piece_ story I uploaded a little while back.**

 **LordGhostStriker: Have you read that many stories where the OC doesn't know what zombies are? From what I've seen, they know what they are, they just don't like saying it out loud.**

 **Savoxgut: Thank you very much. I guess my timing was pretty convenient for you then. I certainly shall.**

 **Guest: Sorry, but I'm not going to be including the OC from my other HOTD fic. I can see your point about how that would develop well, but it really isn't something I plan on doing with this fic. Sorry if I disappointed you.**

 **Pyrojack25: Thank you. And yes, I know what you mean, and your suggestion was taken into account when I made my decision on the matter.**

 **War sage: Thanks!**

 **SharpRevan: Well, since Ren is going to be an advisor of sorts to the group I … guess it could be considered a little like that, if only a tiny bit. It's all good if that's the best you can come up with, you can just sit back and enjoy the story.**

 **ParkerThomas: Thank you very much, I'm glad you like it. Well, that is the basic roll Ren will be fulfilling, so thanks for the suggestion. I hope you enjoy where I go from here.**

 **Kyuubi gear: Thank you. Well, here's more. And thank you once again.**

 **Guest: Cheers, man.**

 **Mr. Aanonymous: Yes, there are going to be lemons, don't worry.**

 **Guest: Thank you. Here's the update.**

 **roxasduelwielder: Yes, he is going to sort of advisor for the group, so thanks for the suggestion.**

 **Guest: Thanks, mate.**

 **Guest: This is about the whole 'trans-pacific' thing, right? Yeah, I've already heard about it.**

 **Let's begin.**

* * *

Escape from the Undead Academy

"The government has begun to discuss the emergency measures," said the woman on TV. "However, the mobilisation of self-defence forces has been the subject of a—"

Saeko used the remote to change the channel. We were now all gathered in the faculty room, Takashi, Kohta and I having pushed a desk against the door to act as a barricade. We were in relative safety for the time being. While my breathing was still heavier than usual, my thoughts were now straight and I had calmed down quite a lot, which was good. I couldn't afford to panic at a time like this; it wasn't only Shizuka, I had to look after my students, too. Speaking of Shizuka, our hands had been locked with each other since the desk had gone up against the door. I honestly wasn't sure who was getting more comfort from it: me or her.

"—ver ten-thousand have been victimised in city areas so far," said the reporter on the station Saeko had switched to. Behind her, filled body bags were being removed from an ambulance by what looked like police officers. "The governor has already called for the—" A loud bang, the unmistakable sound of a gunshot, interrupted the reporter, who recoiled in surprise. The camera veered off from the reporter and I could see the heavily armoured police force crowding around what looked like one of the bodies. The reporter continued, "—already declared a state of emergency, and requests that the emergency disaster relief—" She was cut off again, but this time she had done it to herself, and it became very clear to me why the police had surrounded the body bags.

The body bags began to _sit up_. They were closed and sealed, so I couldn't make out the people inside, but that didn't change the fact that the people in those body bags were sitting up. They never had a chance to do much more, though, as two more gunshots rang out and round holes appeared in the body bags around where the head should be. The bags quickly returned to their lying position on the stretchers.

"It's a gunshot," said the reporter when she'd finally regained her voice. "It looks like the police are finally using firearms … from what I can see—" She was cut off one final time. The camera fell and I couldn't see much else … but I could hear the terrified screams of the reporter, and that was more than enough to tell me what had just happened. The television cut to loud static, only to be replaced by a TV studio. The noises of chattering people in the background told me that they were rather busy at the moment.

"Uh … there appears to be a problem with our remote," said the woman on screen, who had literally just been handed a sheet of paper. "From now on, we'll bring you the story from inside the studio. The condition outside seems extremely chaotic, so stay home unless it's absolutely necessary to go outside. We'll bring you more stories as soon as it's safe to cover the current situation from the site."

A loud bang from inside the room took my by surprise. Takashi had punched one of the desks. "Is that all?" he said angrily. "Why didn't they tell us anything else?"

"They're afraid of causing a panic," said Saya.

"A panic?" asked Rei.

"Yeah, you idiot!" said Saya harshly. She pushed up her glasses, which she had donned a little earlier, saying her contact lenses were making her uncomfortable. "First panic, then chaos. Chaos causes a disruption of order. And then, when order is disrupted … well you should just hand it all over to the walking corpses."

"A person is smart, but _people_ are stupid," I said. "Get enough people in the same mood and they're liable to do some pretty stupid things … _especially_ if they're scared out of their wits."

I honestly had to struggle to keep a smile from taking over my face. Despite all the death, despite the breakdown she'd had earlier on, Saya was still one of the smartest—no, _the_ smartest person in this school. I had never been particularly fond of her aggressive way of addressing people, but nobody was perfect, and in a way it kind of worked: she got her point across in a way that made sure people remembered what she said, even if it wasn't in the most positive of lights. I couldn't help feeling prideful of my students when they showed what made them special, and despite the situation, I found that familiar feeling of pride swelling up within me at that very moment.

"This unusual and unprecedented biological phenomenon that's spread throughout North America has yet to be put under control," said the woman on the American news channel Saeko had just switched to. "Government authorities have evacuated the White House and will relocated to a command centre aboard the aircraft carrier _George Washington_. There are reports that the transfer of power is in preparation for the use of tactical warheads to combat the infestation. We have currently lost contact with Moscow. Beijing has been set ablaze. London has maintained order, while in Paris and Rome there are reports of looting. The government officials have declared as state of martial law—" Those were the last words we could discern before the TV cut to static once more.

 _That's something,_ I thought to myself, a feeling of relief coming over me. _Dad's in London, and if they've managed to maintain order … he might actually survive this_.

That happy thought in mind, I turned my attention back to the not-so-happy conversation.

"So they're everywhere," said Takashi.

"That's crazy," said Kohta. "Everything was normal when I checked the internet this morning."

 _Yes, that_ is _rather odd,_ I thought at Kohta's comment. _Someone so much as shits themselves in public and it's all over the internet in seconds, but_ this _of all things wasn't covered at all … Either someone really wanted to keep this quiet or everyone died before they could post anything about it. And as much as I hate to be the conspiracy nut, the former option makes much more sense than the latter if how slow these things are is anything to go by …_ I stopped mulling this over as the conversation continued.

"I can't believe this …" said Rei. By her face I could tell she was in a similar horrified state to the one I had been in barely an hour before. "… This happened all over the world in the matter of a few hours …" She took hold of Takashi's arm. "But they'll stop it, right? They have to stop it … from spreading, I mean …" She turned her head up and smiled a little. "Everything is going back to normal soon."

"That's not gonna happen," said Saya. Her voice was raised a little higher than was probably needed.

"Why do you have to be so blunt about it?" Takashi asked her.

"This is a _pandemic_ ," said Saya irritably. "There's _nothing_ we can do!"

"A pandemic …" Shizuka muttered next to me.

"And a pretty fucking nasty one, too," I said. I wouldn't normally swear in front of my students, but given the circumstances I think a few curse words would do the least harm of anything else. I sighed. "I'm sorry if I'm killing your hopes by saying this, guys, but Takagi is right, I really don't see this getting any better."

"But Mr Levitt," said Rei, "it can't just stay like this … can it?"

I felt a pang of guilt in my heart as I thought about what I had to say next. "I'm sorry, Miyamoto—truly I am—but there really isn't anything anyone can do." I said it as softly as possible, trying to give her the truth without distressing her too badly. "There are hundreds of students in this school, _hundreds,_ and it took about twenty minutes for this place to go down like a sack of spuds, if it even took _that_ long. As bad as it is to think about … I think staying alive is about as good as it's going to get for anybody."

"And even if it _did_ spread slower, this is still a _worldwide_ pandemic," added Takagi. "This is exactly like the Spanish Flu in 1918. More than six hundred million people got infected, and over fifty million died from it. You remember how much of a panic Swine Flu caused? Well _square_ that."

"Not to be disagreeable," said Shizuka, "but I think this is more like the Black Death from the 14th Century."

"One third of the European population died," agreed Saya, "you're smarter than you look."

I felt a small spark of anger flow through me. "Okay, that's enough with the insults," I said to Saya. "That's not helping."

"So how did the outbreak finally end?" asked Takashi.

"Well, there are many theories," said Shizuka. "It usually stops when too many humans die. There wouldn't be enough people to spread the disease."

"But now all the dead people still move and start attacking you," said Kohta, who was looking out the window at the multitude of … _Them_ below us.

"Are you saying that there's no reason for this outbreak to stop?" asked Saeko.

This hung over us for a moment, but then Shizuka seemed to perk up suddenly. "The weather's going to be hot," she said with a smile. "They might not be able to move if their flesh decomposes and they become skeletons."

I found myself smiling at my girlfriend's optimism. I absent-mindedly released her hand and put my arm around her shoulders. I kissed her on the cheek with a smile on my face. I sincerely doubted it would be as simple as she said … but I hoped it was. That would have made things so much easier if it was just a matter of waiting until the undead bastards rot. But life, as I'd come to learn, was _never_ that simple. Still, I could hope, and there was a slim, _very_ slim possibility that she was right. We wouldn't know for sure until some time had passed.

"How long does it take for that to happen?" asked Saeko.

"In summer, some parts of the body can become skeletal in about twenty days," said Shizuka, who was counting on her fingers. "But it takes considerably longer during winter …" She smiled brightly as the answer came to her. "Couple of months. That's not too terribly long."

"You're kidding," said Saeko.

"She's _not_ smarter than she looks," said Saya.

"Didn't I say stop that?" I said to the pink-haired girl. Getting angry at the students isn't something I did if I could help it, but the insults against Shizuka were getting on my nerves. I briefly considered how hypocritical of me it was to complain about it now but not when she was doing it to other students, and I mentally berated myself for it. I couldn't let the situation turn me into an asshole.

Saya sighed. "Yes, Mr Levitt, I'll stop insulting your ditzy little girlfriend," she said sarcastically.

"So what are you saying?" Takashi cut in. I think he was trying to stop things from getting ugly.

"Medical logic doesn't apply to those dead corpses that move around and attack humans," said Saya. "Worse case scenario, they might never decompose …"

There was a moment of silence after that. I'm not entirely certain any of us knew what to say; I certainly didn't, at any rate. That thought plagued my mind something fierce. I may have spoken to Rei like I was fully prepared to live in this new world forever, but the truth is that the thought of it positively _terrified_ me. It wasn't the thought of my own death that scared me—it was Shizuka, the students, everyone else. It was harrowing, the thought that everyone important to me, everyone I happened to meet along the way, would have a rather large chance of being eaten alive.

A sardonic grin appeared on my face. I really envied these kids. They had adapted so quickly to the situation, they had killed so many of Them with ease, whereas I had hidden in a classroom as the chaos erupted throughout the building, and then I'd had to stop on my way to the infirmary so that I could throw up. These kids—no, these young men and women were managing so much better than myself, and I felt so proud of them.

I would adapt for them. I would adapt for Shizuka. I would survive all of this for no other reason than to keep them as safe as they could get. They all deserved to survive this.

"So, what are we sitting around for?" I said, the grin on my face growing. I think it confused them that I was smiling, but I just couldn't help it. "If we're gonna be in this for the long haul, we'd best have some sort of plan."

I may have been their teacher, but even if I did have a plan I wasn't going to start ordering them around. Having one person in charge never goes well; more often than not, too many people in a group disagree with the one in charge and either leave or rebel—just look at any dictatorship in history and tell me I'm wrong. Teamwork was the only way we were getting out of this with even the remotest chance of survival, and that is why I was more than happy to let the students talk this out and give my opinion where appropriate.

I could see them smiling at me a little. And Shizuka rested her head on my shoulder. I had the sneaking suspicion that they still expected me to be going through the slight mental breakdown I'd had earlier; I couldn't say I blamed them. I had been quite pale for a while.

"The first thing we should find out is if our families are okay," said Saeko. "Then we need to find some place safe where we can hold up for a while. But Mr Levitt's right, no matter where we go, we're going to need a plan." There was a moment of silence as she seemed to think. "Teams. We need to team up."

There was no need to say any more, we all knew the deal by that point. We were going to try and escape from the school building, picking up any survivors as we went, and then we were going to take one of the school buses (since Shizuka's car was hardly big enough for all of us) and escape to the city.

As everyone got their weapons ready, I was stood by Shizuka, already holding the cricket bat that had aided me in my fights against Them thus far.

"When we leave, you stay behind me," I said quietly to Shizuka. She wasn't exactly built for fighting, nor did she have the stomach for the amount of violence we were inevitably going to face when we left the room, so I was very concerned for her. "I'll keep you safe, I promise. We'll get out of here just fine."

She smiled at me as she gathered up her bagged medical supplies. "Don't worry about me, Ren," she said. She leaned forward and kissed me softly on the lips. I was left with a lingering need for more as she separated from me. "It's not like you'll be the only one fighting, so try not to give yourself so much responsibility."

I nodded. "I can't promise not to do that, but I'll certainly try."

We smiled at each other and shared one last, short kiss before everyone else was ready, too.

"Let's try to pick up survivors whenever we can," said Saeko.

"Let's do it," said Takashi.

"What's the best way outta here?" asked Rei.

"Sorry to break it to ya, stupid, but we're just going to have to go out the front," said Saya.

I sighed. "Takagi, if you're not going to stop completely with the derogatory remarks, could you at least save them until we're _not_ about to run into mortal danger?" I said. _Surely someone as smart as her sees that now isn't the time for insulting each other._

We all gathered up near the door to the faculty room. Takashi was in the lead. I wasn't sure why, but for some reason letting him choose when to leave made some strange sort of sense. He just had this … _air_ about him that made me want to follow him. It was crazy, really; I was stood there, perfectly willing to follow the orders of one of my students.

Then again, the whole _world_ was looking pretty crazy by that point.

"Let's go," said Takashi.

He opened the door to the faculty room, and Kohta shot down two of Them that were lingering outside instantly. There was a third, which Takashi dealt with swiftly, bashing its head in with his baseball bat. Shizuka was staying relatively near the centre of the group, so there was at least one of us on each side of her. I felt a great deal of comfort knowing that she was protected on all sides.

And then we found ourselves fighting through the corridors of the school all over again.

~Me, My Students and the Dead~

We had reached a relatively clear stairwell when we stopped. It appeared that Saeko had something to say.

"Let me make something clear," she said, "there's no need to engage in a fight unless it's necessary. Do whatever you can to avoid a fight, you got it?"

"Remember, they're sensitive to sound, so keep it quiet," said Saya. "And they're strong enough to break through regular walls and doors. And when they've got a hold on you, they're gonna tear you to shreds, so be careful."

There was an incredibly high-pitched scream from somewhere nearby, and we all took off running. It was definitely a girl, and almost certainly a student judging by the high pitch of her voice. I gathered that she had to be in some kind of group if she was still alive in all this. That was good. The more survivors, the better. It didn't take long before we came upon another stairwell, this one a little crowded with Them … and I could see at least four students who appeared to be trapped in the middle of it.

"Stay back!" I heard one of them say, this one a male. One of Them went in for a bite, but Kohta shot at it from our spot at the top of the stairs, putting it down for good.

The rest of us leapt into action pretty quickly after that. I wasn't really keeping an eye on the others; rather, I was focusing all my attention on the fighting. I practically leapt down the stairs, surprisingly not falling down them, and brought my cricket bat down right on one of Their heads, cracking it open and spilling its brain matter onto the floor in front of me. I gritted my teeth slightly, but my reaction was nowhere near as severe as it had been before. I immediately swung my cricket bat to the left, smashing another one of Them over the railing of the staircase; it cracked its head open at the bottom. I could feel the others fighting around me more than I could see them.

My breathing was slightly laboured again by the time we had finished. I had lost count of how many former students I had just sent to their permanent resting places. There was no feeling of sickness this time, though, so I took that much as a positive.

"Uh … thank you," one of the girls in the group said. There were five of them, not four like I'd assumed. I didn't recognise any of them, so they were probably students who hadn't chosen to take English.

"Keep it down," said Saeko. "Is anyone bitten yet?"

"What?" the girl asked. "No … no one."

"It looks okay," said Rei in confirmation. She was smiling again. "We'll be all right."

"We're getting out of here," Takashi told the group. "Do any of you want to come with us?"

"We're taking one of the buses," I added. I thought they might want to at least know what we were doing before joining up with us.

One of the boys looked at me wearily. I realised that, with my slightly laboured breathing, I might have looked quite unhealthy, which probably didn't look too good given the situation.

"Sure, we'll come," said the girl. Though she was looking at me with some concern, too.

"I'm not about to drop dead, if that's what you're thinking," I told them with a humorous grin. "I'm just not used to bashing people's heads in. You're in perfectly safe company."

That seemed to put them at ease, and we were soon making our way through the hallways again.

It was not much longer until we reached the front doors of the school, and we hadn't really encountered too many of Them on our way over, so it was starting to seem as if we'd bypassed most of them … If only it had been that easy. We got there and at the front of the school, near everyone's shoe-lockers, were rather a lot of Them, just sort of stumbling about aimlessly. Not surprising, really, since they were pretty much blind. But whether they could see or not, there was a formidable number of Them in front of us, and if we wanted to get passed this area unscathed, we'd have to get rid of them somehow before we tried to move out.

"Man, there's a bunch of them," muttered Takashi. We were all doing our best to keep quiet to avoid alerting Them.

"From what I can tell, the only thing they react to are sounds," said Saya. "They can't see us, so it's pointless to hide from them."

"Why don't you go down there and prove that theory?" said Takashi.

"Actually, Mr Levitt was saying something like that earlier," said Saeko.

"When I was making my way down to the infirmary," I said when everyone looked at me, "I just walked through the corridors for the most part. None of the damn things had any clue I was there. I only even had to fight if the hallway I was in was too crowded."

"There are too many down there to just walk past them," said Saeko. "Somebody's going to have to clear the way."

Nobody volunteered in a hurry. I think we were all a little nervous that the theory about them being blind would turn out to be wrong—hell, I _knew_ they were blind, yet some paranoia or another kept me quiet. I just had a _really_ bad feeling about this.

Takashi sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I'll do it, I'll go."

Rei spoke up near enough instantly. "No. You stay, I'll go."

"I think I should go ahead first," said Saeko.

With some effort, I swallowed down the feelings of fear that were holding me back. "I'll do it," I said. I felt Shizuka grab my hand, and I squeezed back in reassurance. I was fairly confident now. "I've walked through a load of them once and come out fine, what's a second time likely to do to me?"

"I think you two should stay back here just in case," Takashi told Saeko and myself.

Rei stood up abruptly as Takashi began to walk away. "Takashi, _why_?" she asked. I was wondering the exact same thing.

Takashi stopped moving. "I don't know," he said simply.

"You don't know?" Rei was confused.

Takashi turned to look back at us with a smile. "Seriously, I don't know," he said. He turned back around and started walking down the stairs again.

Rei tried to make after him. "Taka—"

"Don't," said Saeko, grabbing one of Rei's arms to stop her from moving. "I understand, but you can't interfere with him. This was his decision."

I understood. I didn't like it, and I was only just keeping myself from biting my nails due to my restlessness. But despite thinking that I should have gone down in place of my student, I understood the need to allow his decisions to stand perfectly. _There isn't much to worry about, anyway,_ I reasoned with myself. _They're_ blind _for Christ's sake. Takashi isn't stupid enough to make a shit-ton of noise on his way down, so he'll be fine. There's no reason to worry._

Calmed but still slightly restless, I watched as Takashi made his way to the bottom of the stairs.

He got to the bottom of the stairs and walked into the midst of the hoard. Then he just stood there. He looked nervous—for which I obviously couldn't blame him—but one of Them was approaching him, seemingly heading straight for him. I tensed at the same time he did, half expecting it to lunge for him … but it simply passed him by. I released my breath and smiled, knowing that Takashi was going to be all right. After a few moments, Takashi bent down and picked up a shoe that was lying on the bloody floor. He then proceeded to throw it to one end of the hallway, where it made a very loud _bang!_ as it hit the wall. All of Them turned towards it, moaning in Their croaky, dead voices, and moved to that end of the hall, well away from the front doors of the school.

Once Takashi had opened the front doors, the rest of us began making our way down the stairs as quickly and quietly as possible. I was still hand in hand with Shizuka the whole way … we were nearly out the door … we were going to make it …

 _CLANG!_

The sound of metal hitting something echoed rather loudly around us. Time almost seemed to freeze as the consequences of such a loud noise occurred to me. There was total silence for a few moments—I even had time to look behind me for a moment to see what had made the noise; one of the survivors we'd picked up had knocked the metal pole he was using against the banister on the staircase. The silence was deafening … then a loud noise seemed to rise up around us, and it terrified me to my very core. The moaning of hundreds of Them resounded through the air, and only a single thought occurred to me.

 _Fuck …_

"RUN!" Takashi shouted at the top of his lungs, and we all did just that.

I gripped Shizuka's hand tightly—probably much tighter than was necessary—and I ran for the front door of the school as fast as my legs would carry me. My survival instincts had taken over again, and I was aware of very little other than the legions of Them that surrounded us as we exited the school. I released Shizuka's hand but made sure to stay near her, preparing my cricket bat for the biggest fight it had had so far.

"Why did you have to go and shout!?" Saya yelled at Takashi. "We could've made it by just taking care of the ones that were close by if you hadn't said anything!"

I bashed one of Their heads in with my bad, growling. "Okay, you know what, Takagi? I'm getting sick and tired of asking you to drop the hostility, so shut your trap and listen for a second!" Getting this frustrated with a student was unusual for me, but due to the circumstances, I didn't really have the presence of mind to try and say this nicely. "That sound echoed all over the place—you heard it, I heard it—so all these things were going to close on in either way, and fighting them makes noise, too, in case you hadn't noticed, so they would've ended up coming for us anyway! So what we're gonna need you to do now, is shut up and start running! Or would you rather be eaten? The choice is entirely yours." I was panting in frustration with her attitude, but as my mind cleared a little, I found that I felt bad about snapping at her like that. There would be time for apologies later, though, and for now I just needed her to work with the rest of us to get out of this alive.

Saya seemed to grit her teeth at being spoken to like that. "Yes sir," she said in a begrudging sort of voice.

We got moving again. I swung my cricket bat again, sending one of Them flying to the left with blood pouring from its head. Kohta was in front of us, aiming his nail gun at the large amount of Them, but not firing, possibly due to the sheer number of them that lay ahead of us. Takashi ran past him and the rest of us followed. I swung my bat with as much strength as I could muster, bashing in the heads of my former students and colleagues and feeling nothing from it because of the huge amount of adrenaline that was pumping through my veins.

"Forget talking," said Takashi, "just _run_!"

And then we all charged forwards. Myself, Takashi, Rei and Saeko were at the front, bashing in the heads of anything that was unfortunate enough to cross our path, but avoiding unnecessary fighting as Saeko had suggested. Kohta, Saya and Shizuka brought up the rear, with Kohta shooting anything that got close to them; they were following the path we were creating, though, which meant there were very few of Them between them and us. I thought everything was going really well … until the sounds of somebody yelling out in pain reached my ears.

I turned and saw that They had one of the survivors we'd picked up surrounded, and he was crying out in pain and fear as They clamped Their jaws onto him, dragging him to the ground without mercy.

 _I've got to help him,_ I thought. _I've got to save him … I've got to try and do something—_ I bit my own tongue to snap myself back to my senses. I had already seen what happened to those who get bitten, and I also knew there was no saving him now, so charging in there would be a pointless risk. As hard as it was, I chose to simply move forward.

One of the other survivors stopped dead and turned around at the sounds of his screaming. She looked very distraught at the sight of him being torn apart on the ground, so I made the assumption that they had been lovers before all this. She made to run towards him, but Saya grabbed onto her arm.

"Just forget him!" Saya yelled at the girl. "Once you get bitten it's pointless!" The girl wrenched herself free of Saya's grip on her arm, looked at her, shook her head with tears rolling down her face, and ran towards the scene of the young man being brutally ripped apart. I would have stopped her, but a few of Them got in my way and I had to deal with Them. "Wait a minute!" exclaimed Saya. "You heard me, didn't you? He's not gonna make it! Why are you going back to him!?"

Shizuka, who had moved close to me after I'd dealt with the small group of Them, took a step back. "I understand," she said quietly. "If the entire world turned into this … I'd rather die with the person that I love."

I reached my left hand back, keeping my bat firmly in the grasp of my right, and gave her hand a gentle squeeze. "Shizuka, I don't plan on _either of us_ dying," I said. "So you just stop those thoughts right there, okay? We'll get out of this just fine."

"Oh, shut up, Mr and Mrs Bleeding Heart!" Saya yelled at us. I wasn't even going to comment on that one.

"Look out!" Kohta shouted in warning before shooting down one of Them that had been closing in on Saya. He got close to her, pointing the nail gun all around them. "Don't you worry, Takagi."

"You rude little otaku!" Saya yelled. "How _dare_ you interrupt me while I'm talking!? Why would you do that!?"

"I don't know," said Kohta, "'cause I really like your voice." He turned to her with a smile. She just looked confused and put off.

I had to smile at that. Despite how unpleasant Saya was being, Kohta was still trying to act all sweet with her. It was actually a really pleasant sight to see. I stopped admiring the students' relationships to each other in order to smash in the head of one of Them that had been closing in on Shizuka and myself.

"Nice to see the two of you getting along," Saeko said to Kohta and Saya as she seemingly decided to join us.

"Ms Shizuka, the key!" exclaimed Takashi as we got close to the bus. Shizuka had the key because she had a bag to put it in, and we really didn't feel safe putting it in anyone's pocket.

Shizuka got the door to the bus open and everyone started piling inside. Shizuka was in the driver's seat, and the only people still outside the bus were Takashi, Saeko and I. We were fighting off any of Them that got near. I saw Shizuka struggling with the controls of the bus and went inside to help her out.

"Trust me, it's not all that different from a car when you get used to it," I said, then I pointed out to her where all the controls were. The only reason I didn't offer to take over was because we were a little pressed for time. "You got all that?" I asked, to which she nodded.

Saeko and Takashi were both on the bus now, and Takashi was about to close the door when he stopped abruptly. I looked where he was looking and was shocked to see a rather large group of students, accompanied by a teacher, running towards the bus. As happy as I was that there were other survivors, I couldn't help but let a feeling of dread wash over me as I took a closer look at the teacher who was with them.

 _Oh, please_ God _, don't let it be—_

"Who's that?" asked Takashi.

"That's Mr Shido of Class 3-A," Saeko told him.

"… Well, fuck me with a rake …" I muttered to myself as my mood darkened considerably. Shido was one of the few people in this world who I could say I one hundred percent, without a doubt, absolutely _hated_. The man was a pervert of the highest nature, and he was constantly leering at the female staff members, but mostly Shizuka because of her rather sizeable bust size; I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd been doing so to students, too. And my feelings of hatred for the man were apparently mutual. Since I had started working at the school, he had taken every opportunity to get me into trouble, whether I'd actually done anything wrong or not. It all started early on, when I had reported him for neglecting to punish the students in his class that were bullying Kohta on a regular basis; ever since then, Shido had despised me.

Incidentally, I noticed Rei tense up at the sight of him, too. _I wonder why that is …?_

"We can go now!" Shizuka announced.

"Wait just a little bit longer," said Takashi. Rei looked at him like he'd just suggested we go outside and try to form a conga line with a large group of Them.

"They're in front of us," said Shizuka with a panicked voice. "Any more and we won't be able to drive through here."

"Run 'em down." Takashi's voice was stern.

Saya sighed. "If Dr Boobs tries to drive over that many, we'll flip the bus," she said.

Once again, I chose to ignore the comment, having more important things to be worrying about at the present time.

Takashi made to jump off the bus, but Rei grabbed onto him. "We don't have to save him!" she said aggressively.

Takashi looked at her incredulously. "Jesus. What do you mean, _we don't have to save him_?"

"We don't have to help him!" Rei shouted in his face. "We should just leave him here to die!"

I wanted to agree with her. The temptation to just leave the bastard to be ripped apart by Them was so tempting it was insane … but, while I hated the man with a passion I couldn't even describe, he _had_ led a group of students to safety, and I certainly wasn't willing to leave them to die, so … I begrudgingly kept my mouth shut. Even if Shido was a scumbag, the fact that he cared enough about the students to try and get them out of there alive made me consider that he might not deserve to die.

What happened next convinced me otherwise.

Shido had stopped to wave the students on past, but one of them fell over and landed at his feet. Shido simply stood there for a few moments, and for a moment I honestly thought he was going to help the poor boy up, but … Shido proved himself to be worse than I had ever thought. He raised a foot up and brought it down on the poor boy's face. I saw blood coat the boy's face before the crowd of Them surrounding him shielded him from my view.

Shido managed to get on the bus before any of us could shut the door in his face. Our eyes met as he walked past me and we sharpened our gazes at one another.

That was the first time in my life I had ever wanted to choke the life out of someone as painfully as possible.

There was nothing I could do without wasting precious time, however, so I turned my gaze to look out the front window of the bus. Shizuka had started driving the second the door had snapped shut behind Shido, and we were now making our way towards the front gate of the school. Shizuka's breath began to quicken as we rapidly approached a large group of Them that was standing between us and the gate. She looked hesitant.

I placed one of my hands on her arm. "Shizuka, they're aren't people," I said. "They aren't even _alive_. You're not hurting anyone by doing this."

She seemed to steel herself. Then she slammed her foot down on the accelerator pedal and we went forward at a rapid pace, running down any of Them that got in our way. I quickly sat myself down in a seat right at the front of the bus, bracing myself for the inevitable impact. Sure enough, it wasn't long until the bus smashed through the gates of the school, and I damn near flew out of my seat when contact was made. And then we were driving, smoothly but rapidly, on the road outside the school.

I sighed in relief. We would be relatively safe for a little while, at least. I got up from my seat and walked over to Shizuka. Without getting in her way, I leant over and kissed her cheek softly. "If you need a break, just tell me and I'll take over," I whispered to her.

"Just sit down," she said with a smile. "I've got this for now."

I did as she said and sat down … though I just couldn't get comfortable knowing that Shido, that murderous son of a bitch, was on the bus with us.

~Me, My Students and the Dead~

The sun was setting. I was still sitting at the very front of the bus, occasionally glancing at Shizuka to see if she was getting tired. I realised with some humour that she was right about me worrying too much; I hadn't stopped worrying about her since the whole thing started, and she still looked fine. I guess I'm just that kind of person.

Kohta was re-taping the sight he had attached to the nail gun. Everyone else was sitting in silence. We hadn't really interacted at all in the half-hour or so since we'd escaped the school—we had been trapped there for a lot longer than anyone had thought.

"I can't believe we did it," Takashi said quietly.

"Yeah," Kohta said in agreement, just as quietly.

"Thank God we did," said Shido, who was taking his first steps towards the front of the bus since he'd gotten on. He was looking at me, his eyes narrowed and a smile on his face that was filled with disdain. "Can I assume _you_ led them out of the school, Mr Levitt? Forgive me for saying, but I find that … _difficult_ to believe."

I bit back a snarl. When I spoke next, I made myself sound as civil as possible, which was hard when the image of him stomping on that student's face kept flashing through my mind. "You'd be wrong to believe it, anyway, Mr Shido," I said with a strained smile. "No one led the group out of there. We fought together, we moved together, and we made decisions _together_. It's teamwork that got us out of there, Mr Shido, not leadership."

"An admirable sentiment, to be sure," he said, his eyes narrowing even more, and a smirk growing on his face. "But I'm afraid I must disagree. If we're going to survive, we're definitely going to need a leader. A leader bears everything, with valour, with confidence."

"Dictatorships always fail, Mr Shido," I said, frowning. "They crumble and they burn. Surely history has taught us that?"

"The city!" said the loud voice of a student at the back of the bus. Shido threw me a contemptuous glare before looking out the front window. I did the same.

It was chaos. From the road we were on, we could see the entire city down below us. There were large pillars of smoke rising from buildings. There were flickering lights from different places, showing where there were fires alight throughout the town. As we drove down the hill and into a small amount of buildings on the outskirts of the city, blood was splattered in the streets, and They were scattered around everywhere. We hit one on the way past a convenience store, and its body crumpled in the road like a rag-doll.

"Shiiiit," said a blond student from the back—Tsunoda, I believe his name was. He stood up to address the rest of the bus. "Like I said, it's only dangerous if we keep going! First of all, why do we have to go with Mr Levitt ***** and the others? You guys are the only ones who decided to go back to the city! Maybe we should've just looked for a safe place inside the school. If you ask me, we were better off where we were!"

"He's right," said another student, this one I didn't know. "I kind of agree with Tsunoda. We should barricade ourselves somepl—"

The screeching of the tires and the sudden force trying to fling me off my seat told me that Shizuka had just abruptly stopped the bus. The only reason I hadn't told them to stop was the fact that I thought everyone on the bus should have a say—even Shido, though I thought his opinion was worth less than dogshit in the park—and no matter how unreasonable their ideas were, everyone should be able to get said ideas out in the open.

Shizuka unclipped her seatbelt and leaned over to look at everyone … leaving her large breasts to hang there for everyone to gawk at. "Okay, you all, that's enough!" she yelled. "I can't focus on the driving with all this yelling!"

I moved forward as she sat back in the seat. "All right, Shizuka, time for me to take over," I said. She gave me a look. "You're stressed out. Just take a seat and let me drive for a while, okay?"

Shizuka sighed. "Okay," she said. She stood up and sat in the seat I was previously occupying. I sat in the driver's seat, clipped on the seatbelt, and began to move the bus forward once more.

"How about you tell me what you wanna do?" Saeko said to Tsunoda. I could no longer see what was happening as my eyes were focused on the road.

"… I just can't stand this guy!" said Tsunoda. "I hate him!"

"Why?" asked Takashi. From this I figured that Tsunoda had been speaking about him. "What the hell did I ever do to you? I don't even know you."

"You know—" If Tsunoda was going to say anything else, he didn't get the chance to. There was the sound of a hard impact and Tsunoda seemed to start choking. I heard a bumping sound that indicated he had fallen to the floor.

"Asshole," Rei said with contempt in her voice.

A sound I distinctly recognised as clapping resounded from the back of the bus. "Bravo," said Shido, and my teeth gritted together. "Is this that excellent teamwork you were talking about, Mr Levitt?" My hands tightened on the steering wheel. "I'm impressed. I commend both of you. At any rate, a conflict like that merely proves my point; we need a leader. We do. Surely neither of you want such a difficult responsibility on your shoulders?"

"So, you're going to run for the position, then?" said Saya.

"I'm a teacher, Ms Takagi," said Shido, "and much more qualified for the job than certain … _others_ I could mention." I knew he was talking about me, and I felt myself tense in anger. "And, while mature, the rest of you are barely in your teens." The tone of his voice rose so that it resounded all throughout the bus. "That alone makes it very clear who should assume such a role! I have experience! Why, just moments ago I saved all of these brave students! What do you say, guys?"

A large amount of clapping came from the back of the bus, and I felt my stomach drop. _Is … is this_ bastard _really going to be in charge? Do these kids have no sense?_ My anger was building, but I did my best to stay in control as to avoid an accident. I felt a hand on my arm, and I turned to see Shizuka trying to smile at me. I smiled back and I felt actual calm wash over me.

"There, it's been decided," said Shido. "The majority seems to have made the choice quite clear, yes?"

"Mr Levitt, stop the bus!" Rei yelled from beside me. I turned to see her face red with rage. "I'm getting off!"

"Wha—" I had trouble finding my voice. I cleared my throat. "Miyamoto, I really think you should think this through—"

"STOP THE DAMN BUS!" she practically screamed at me. I could see her muscles tensing. Reluctantly, I complied and pressed my foot down on the breaks. I hated doing it, but I couldn't afford to be distracted while driving, I didn't want to risk crashing the bus. When the bus stopped, Rei kicked open the doors and leapt out and into the street.

Takashi stood by the door and leant his head out. "Rei!" he called to her.

"No way!" said Rei, turning around to face him, her face completely overtaken with anger. "I won't do it! I'm not staying here with him!"

"Get back on the bus," Takashi said quietly.

"Well, there's nothing I can do if you don't want to act in accordance with all of us," said Shido.

I snapped my head around to look at him. I practically growled as I spoke. "Shido, you son of a bitch, you'd better shut your fucking mouth _right now._ I hear one more word out of you and I'll come back there and choke the God damned life out of you, and I really don't give a _fuck_ who voted for what!" I was shaking. I had never felt this angry in my life, and in that moment I honestly felt like I was going to kill him if another sound left his mouth.

Luckily for the slimy bastard, he chose to clamp his mouth shut faster than I even thought possible. He kept silent, but he glared at me intensely. It was funny, because for that one moment, Shido was _afraid_ of me … and I liked that.

"Komuro!" yelled Saya, and that's when I realised that Takashi had gotten off the bus, too.

"Okay, both of you, get your asses back on the bus!" I yelled out at them, but they didn't listen to me.

Takashi grabbed Rei's arm. "Wait!" he said. "Get back on the bus. When we get to the city, we'll get off. I don't want you to leave."

"That's why I told you that you'd regret this!" Rei snapped at him.

"No, we'll both regret this!" Takashi yelled … then the horn of a very large vehicle sounded.

"Okay, you need to punch it!" Saeko yelled at me. I didn't even wait to see what was coming, I just floored the accelerator. There was an enormously loud _CRASH! a_ nd then I saw that there was now the flaming wreckage of a bus between us and the other two, who it now seemed were trapped in an underpass. I had drawn to a stop not far from where we were before, but I still couldn't tell if Takashi and Rei were all right due to the large amount of fire in the way.

Saeko got off the bus. I didn't even protest this time; my heart was pumping too quickly for me to think properly.

"Komuro, are you all right?" Saeko called over the sound of the roaring flames.

"At the police station!" came the voice of Takashi, muffled by the sounds of the flames … and now the moaning of Them; They had apparently been on the bus when it had crashed, and They were still alive despite the flames. "We'll meet at the East Police Station!"

"What time?" asked Saeko.

"Seven o'clock!" yelled Takashi. "If not today, then tomorrow at the same time!"

Saeko got back on the bus and slammed the door shut. "Looks like we're not taking this freeway any more," she said.

"Right you are," I said. I switched the gears on the bus and got moving again, moving down the road in an attempt to find another way into town. I sighed. "Fuck me, this has been a bad day," I muttered.

"Do you want me to take over?" asked Shizuka with a smile and a glint of humour in her eyes. "You're getting 'stressed out'." She giggled.

I had to chuckle, too. It really was funny, just how quickly the tables had turned. Then I laughed again. Somehow, Shizuka had managed to make the situation feel a lot brighter with just one joke.

It wasn't a surprise, really. Just having her around made everything brighter for me.

I continued driving late into the night.

* * *

 **Okay, how was chapter 2? I'll admit, I had some trouble with this one; being a 17 year old high school student, I found it rather difficult to write from the perspective of a 25 year old teacher, but I think I did all right in the end. What do you think?**

 ***While I have no plans for Ren to become leader of the group, I thought that since a teacher was accompanying Takashi and the others, then the other students would simply assume that teacher was the one in charge.**

 **I realised upon writing this AN that Ren continuing to drive the bus after Shizuka snaps doesn't exactly fit in with canon, where the bus simply remains stationary during the rest of the scene, and Takashi and Rei get off at that spot. So can you guys do me a favour and pretend that there was still some distance to go before they reached the area where the crash occurs? Thank you.**

 **Next Chapter: Taking to the Streets**


	3. Taking to the Streets

**Hello once again, everyone, and welcome to chapter 3 of _Me, My Students and the Dead_! This is a bit quick for me, isn't it? Well, I've got two weeks off from school, so I thought I'd put them to good use. Feedback has been mostly positive once again, for which I thank you, and now we'll get on to answering some reviews before we begin.**

 **Sandshrew master 317: Thank you very much. Here it is!**

 **LordGhostStriker: Don't worry, he will. I've started him out like this because I find it slightly unrealistic how someone can immediately be okay with bashing people's heads in, but he'll grow a pair soon enough.**

 **ParkerThomas: I know, and I apologise for the wait. Thank you very much. Well, here it is!**

 **ghostface4: And I'm glad to be working on it again.**

 **pyrojack25: Thank you for understanding. We all hate Shido, that bastard, and I think all the Shido haters are going to enjoy this chapter very much. I think it's because the characters regard calling them 'zombies' as disrespectful to the people they once were, so they just say _Them_ instead. Also, Deadites were demon-possessed humans, not zombies; sorry for being picky, but _Evil Dead_ is one of my favourite horror movies.**

 **Guest: I thought I covered this in the last chapter …? Ren is going to act as an advisor to Takashi and the others; he'll be the 'dad' of the group in the same way that Shizuka is sort of the 'mum' of the group. Here's the update.**

 **ghostface4 (again): I think we're all looking forward to that particular scene.**

 **Okay, we're done with that. And now we can begin chapter 3!**

* * *

Taking to the Streets

I hadn't slept at all. It was morning, the sun was shining bright in the sky, but I hadn't slept a wink all night. I had switched out with Shizuka in the early hours of the morning because she thought I looked tired—I was, mind you, but I also knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep. I had been sitting there in the front seat of the bus for hours, and my body felt like it was going to shut down at any moment, but I knew it wouldn't. And it wasn't because of Them, either …

… It was because of Shido.

Shido, the poisonous snake, had been at the back of the bus whispering in his snake-like voice to the students who had chosen to follow him. He had stopped for a few hours, presumably to sleep, but now he was at it again. I liked to think that he was keeping his voice down because of the threat I'd made the night before, but I wasn't entirely convinced of that, though it was incredibly likely if his reaction to the threat when it was made is anything to go by. I had to grin at the memory of the look on his face after I threatened him: he looked like Chuck Norris had just personally threatened to rip off his genitalia and feed it to the legion of Them that good old Chuck had probably taken as pets by this point.

I wasn't the only one in our little group that was still awake. There was Shizuka, obviously, since she was driving (though since we were currently caught in traffic on a bridge, there wasn't all that much driving happening); then there was also Saeko and Saya. Kohta, on the other hand, was snoring away and drooling. Saya looked quite annoyed by that fact, and I'm ashamed to say that I was rather amused by it.

But then …

"Exactly!" said Shido. "That's why we should secure a safe place first. Then make moves together, rather than making random moves on our own."

I groaned to myself. _Why the fuck couldn't you have just kept with the whispering?_ I thought as I seethed at the sound of Shido's voice. I had calmed down since the night before, but that didn't mean I'd forgotten what this bastard did. One way or another, we were going to have to separate from his group if we were going to keep from clawing at each other's throats. And as much as I hated to admit it, there was no hope for the students Shido was speaking to; it had taken only one night, but he had practically brainwashed them already. They were as mindless as Them now.

Shido continued, "Isn't that why you voted a leader? Truly, we should wait until we can act as a disciplined group, to confirm the safety of our family members. Going off half-copped on our own—"

" _Hirano_!" Saya hissed. I turned my head to see her elbowing Kohta in the ribs. It would seem that his snoring and drooling had finally made her snap somewhat. "Stop."

"Takagi … morning …" Kohta's voice came out sluggish and tired; his eyes were barely open. "Is it time to get up already?"

" _Yes_ , it's morning," said Saya irritably, then she backed away from Kohta slightly with a look of revulsion on her face. "Ugh, and you're drooling."

Kohta quickly wiped the drool off his face and turned to look out the window at the other cars on the bridge. "Sorry," he said.

"We've all done it, Hirano, so don't you worry," I said. I stretched my arms in the air and felt several satisfying pops and clicks. I may not have slept, but my body was stiff from being still for too long. "Good morning, by the way."

"Morning, Mr Levitt," he said to me, then turned his attention back to the window. "Look at that." There were people getting out of their cars and walking past now, and the ones that were still in their cars were honking their horns like crazy. "I think it's best to evacuate to the suburbs."

"Cars are not the only way to get out of here," said Saya, pointing out the window.

I looked to see what she was pointing at, as did Kohta. There was a plane flying through the air, going upwards, probably just taking off from the look of it.

"The airport on the ocean, you're right," said Kohta.

"It's far too dangerous to be anywhere in the city," said Saya. "I bet a bunch of people are trying to escape to some island or some isolated area with some kind of strong military presence, or something." She put a hand on her chin in thought and crossed one leg over the other.

"Like Okinawa?" asked Kohta. "But the American military that's stationed there isn't there to fight—" His eyes widened slightly in realisation. "Oh, but their self-defence forces."

"If the military has taken appropriate measures, then I'm betting Okaido or Kyushu should be okay, too. If planes are leaving, then all the flights are heading to those areas."

"Too bad we probably just saw the last flight take off," I said. If that really _was_ what was happening, then I would be quite surprised if it had even taken them _this_ long. Say what you want about the military, but when it really counts, they are some fast sons of bitches. So it made sense to me that they would have already evacuated all the important officials that they could save; and civilians they had picked up by this point were just a bonus.

Saya looked at me and nodded. "The areas with heavy presence of American military and self-defence forces may be managing to keep Them under control, but I'm sure they've already adopted a stern policy toward letting anyone else in. You know, sooner or later it's going to be that way everywhere else in the world. I mean, what would you guys do in the same situation?"

"I'd seclude myself," said Kohta. For some reason I got the strange image of him locked in a dark room playing video games with a quilt wrapped around him.

"What would happen if everyone in the world started thinking that way?" Saya asked him. "What if they start focusing on keeping their community as small as possible in order to survive?"

"Personally, I would pick up any survivors that I find that seem like they'd be able to work as a group," I said. "'The only thing that can redeem mankind is cooperation,' is what Bertrand Russell said—" _Thank you,_ Shaun of the Dead _,_ I said mentally. "—and a smaller group means less people to watch your back."

"But then what happens when you have too many people and supplies run low?" Saya asked me. "At first it might work, but eventually there won't be enough resources left to support so large a group."

I shrugged. "There's a problem either way, Takagi," I said. "In the end it just comes down to making the best of a bad situation. Sure, there'll be problems no matter what we do, but problems can be solved."

"Look at him," said Saya, gesturing towards Shido, who was—much to my immense anger—caressing the face of one of the female students. "You can already see that he wants to keep the group as small as possible, though I doubt that he sees it himself. You know, this all happened overnight."

"Should I interrupt them?" asked Kohta, preparing to raise his nail gun.

"Don't," I told him. "Trust me. As much as I'd _love_ to see that little parade broken up, we don't want to be at each other's throats until we know for sure that we'll be separating from them relatively soon. If we start a fight now, things could get real ugly real fast."

"Yeah, forget the pervy teacher and slutty little Sally over there," said Saya, and for once I found her derogatory remarks quite refreshing. She sighed. "I should consult with someone I can trust. Jeez, I could've talked to Komuro if he were here."

Kohta looked downright miserable. "Yeah, you like Komuro, I know," he said.

Saya's face turned positively crimson. "D-don't be ridiculous!" she exclaimed. She gasped in shock when she turned her head to find Shizuka and Saeko standing right next to her seat. Shizuka was smiling but Saeko looked vaguely disinterested.

I stood up and wrapped an arm around Shizuka's shoulders. "Traffic moving too slow for you?" I said with a grin.

She smiled at me. "No one was moving, so I thought I'd come and keep you company for a while," she said.

My grin turned into a smile, and I leant down—being slightly taller than her—and kissed her lightly on the lips. "Well, I'm not complaining," I said.

"What?" Saya snapped, apparently having broken out of her embarrassed daze.

"I'm getting worried," said Saeko, "about Komuro and Miyamoto. I hope they can hold on until we meet up."

* * *

It was a little later—maybe an hour or so—when the shit _really_ started to hit the fan. There was absolute panic on the bridge as those who had exited their cars in order to cross the bridge faster discovered that anyone who tried to cross the bridge on foot would basically be executed on the spot. A small group of people tried it a little ahead of us, and from what little I could see they were blasted into the water below us by some kind of high-power water hose.

 _The cops really aren't taking any chances,_ I thought as I looked at the panic and turmoil on the bridge. I was driving now and Shizuka was in the front seat, the two of us having switched over again. Shido was still spouting his bullshit at the back of the bus, and it was taking every ounce of willpower that I had not to get out of the driver's seat, go back there and beat the bastard's face into a bloody pulp.

"I know we're no longer in school," said Shido, "but I hope you will all continue to live with the pride that your school has instilled within each and every one of you!" I wasn't even looking and I could picture that bastard's dramatic hand-waving. It was almost like he was training to become a comic book villain.

"Pride of unity," Shido continued. "It is that pride that will keep us together. Not vain, glorious pride in ourselves, but pride as a group, a family! And realise this, dear friends, Komuro and Miyamoto … were unfit to be in our family."

"Okay, Shido, I'm reinstating the warning I gave you last night," I called back from my place at the wheel. "Keep your voice down or I officially become a choking hazard!"

Shido still spoke to the students in the back after that, but he at least kept his voice down.

"This guy's a God damn maniac," said Saya.

"You got that right," Saeko agreed. "Sounds like he's a recruiter for some kind of cult religious group."

"It doesn't just sound like it, it _is_ ," said Saya. "And look at the slobbering idiots hinging off his every word. They're like a bunch of Scientologists … or rather _Shido_ tologists. I need to get out of here."

"Judging by the condition on the road, looks like we'll have to give up our ride," said Saeko.

"And thank Christ for that," I said. "I don't think I'll be able to stand another ten minutes on this damn bus with him on here."

"We have to somehow get across Onbetsu Bridge and get to the East Police Station," said Saeko. "We're still supposed to meet up with Komuro."

"You sure are quite concerned about Komuro, aren't you?" asked Saya in a teasing tone of voice. "Aren't you worried about your _own_ family?"

"Of course I am," said Saeko, "but my father is my only family, and he's at the dojo overseas. So the only people I really need to be worrying about right now is myself and Komuro. I really don't care about anybody else. And just look at me. I mean, seriously, if any of us are going to make it out of here alive, it's going to be me, right?"

Saya was growling all throughout this, then she gave off a sarcastic little laugh.

"You're doing that on purpose, aren't you?" I said, glancing back at Saeko.

"I might be," she admitted.

I couldn't help but chuckle. "I shouldn't find this sort of behaviour funny, but I really, really do," I said, then chuckled again. If civilisation was crumbling around us, then any humour in any situation was much appreciated.

"So, where is everyone's house?" asked Shizuka.

"The other side of the bridge," Saya told her. "The same as with Komuro's."

"Oh, my parents are not in the neighbourhood," said Kohta, standing up from his seat. "But … I'd go anywhere as long as I'm with Takagi."

 _Ah, young love,_ I thought in amusement as I noticed Saya back away from Kohta in apparent disgust. _She'll come around eventually, don't you worry, Kohta old boy._ I really didn't care how negative Saya was being towards the idea now, eventually she'd inevitably see just how much Kohta had gone out of his way to make sure she was safe. If she didn't eventually come to care for him in one way or another, I would be severely surprised.

"So tell me, Hirano, where's your family?" asked Saeko. "They close?"

"My father's a jeweller, so he's gone to Amsterdam to buy stones," said Kohta. "My mother is a fashion designer, so she's been staying in Paris to—"

"Christ, do you really expect us to believe all that crap!?" Saya snapped, cutting Kohta off.

Shizuka, however, was laughing her head off. "And if it were a manga, daddy would be the captain of a cruise ship," she said amidst her laughter. She had the most beautiful laugh. "A giant luxury liner."

Kohta rubbed his hair sheepishly. "My _grandpa_ actually was. And my grandmother was a concert violinist." He laughed awkwardly like this was no big deal.

"You have quite the background, don't you?" I said. I got up from the driver's seat; the traffic hadn't moved in a good fifteen minutes, so I thought I'd be safe in joining in with everyone. "Your family must be quite famous in certain circles with occupations like that."

"So, what are we gonna do?" asked Shizuka, standing up from her own seat. "I want to come along with all of you. Both of my parents passed away years ago, and all my relatives live far away, so the only person I've really got right now is Ren, and I'm pretty sure he wants to stay with you guys, too. And … I know I shouldn't be saying this, but I think Mr Shido is kind of a douchebag."

"Understatement of the apocalypse," I said through my attempts to stifle my laughter. The others were laughing, too. "My family is my dad, and he's in London, so there's no chance of seeing if he's okay. Sticking with you guys is the best option that I can see."

"So, what do we do?" said Saeko. "I'm not very familiar with this area."

"We really need to check on Onbetsu Bridge first," said Saya.

"Um … what's the matter, everyone?" said Shido; he was looking at us. "We need to work together, otherwise none of us are ever going to get ou—"

"Thanks for the offer, but I'm gonna pass, Mr Shido," Saya cut him off. "We've got our own plans. And FYI, this is no field trip, I'm under no obligation to be with you. I never had any classes with you, anyway."

Shido's face morphed into a smirk. "I see," he said softly. I didn't like that look in his eyes. He put his hands together in typical evil villain fashion. "If that's what you've decided, go ahead, I won't stop you, Takagi. How could I? This _is_ a free country, not some iron-fisted dictatorship."

 _Bullshit,_ I thought.

Shido chuckled. "However," he said; he licked his lips perversely, "I'm afraid you will have to remain, Ms Marikawa."

Nothing, no amount of anger management training or anything of the sort, could have prepared me for the white hot feeling of rage that welled up within me the very second those words left Shido's mouth. I was shaking, but it was barely noticeable, which I think is why Shido felt comfortable enough to go on speaking. He even moved toward us as he talked, the idiot.

"Losing the doctor is a major blow to our current situation," said Shido silkily as he moved toward us, apparently not noticing that I had now placed myself in front of Shizuka … and all the others, as it happened. I wanted him to walk right up to me. "Would you please stay? What do you say? There are students who are relying on you."

And it was around about here when he got close enough to me for me to do what I did next.

I grabbed the front of Shido's shirt, he looked at me, apparently only just noticing that I was so close to him, and then I raised my fist and punched him square in the nose with all the strength I could muster. He fell right onto his ass, clutching at his nose, which was now leaking copious amounts of blood. He looked up at me with a look on his face that told me he really hadn't expected me to have the guts to do _anything_ to him.

Once again, he was such a fucking _idiot_.

"You guys get off the bus," I said, glancing back at the students and Shizuka. "Go on, I'll join you in a minute. I just have a few things I'd like to get off my chest in front of our good friend Mr Shido. Don't worry, he won't be stopping you."

It was Saeko who opened the door of the bus. "You're such a gentleman, Mr Levitt, thank you," she said before jumping off, followed by Saya and Kohta, who looked like he was itching to shoot Shido with his nail gun. Shizuka stopped at the door, hesitating, but got out after I sent a small nod at her. Then I turned my attention back to Shido.

"Okay, now that I have your attention, I want you to listen the fuck up," I said to him, sounding harsher and more angry than I had ever been in my life. "You're getting off easy with a bloody nose, Shido. Did you really think I was going to let you keep Shizuka here so that you have your own personal sex toy? No! If you think for one fucking second that I'm not being serious when I say this, then I'm afraid you're in for a very bad time: I am very tempted to fucking _kill_ you right now, and that's no joke. Do you think I haven't got the guts to do it after bashing in the heads of God knows how many students back at the school? Ha! I could choke the life out of you and not feel the slightest _hint_ of remorse.

"That punch in the face has been a long time coming, too. And _you—_ " I pointed at a student who was slowly approaching me and Shido. "—sit the fuck _down_!" They sat down. I turned my attention back to Shido, who was looking at me with a mixture of rage and fear that I found myself rather enjoying. "All that shit you pulled at work, trying to get me fired, perving on all the women, downright _bullying_ some of the students; I've wanted to hurt you for a damn long time, Shido, and I'm even a little glad that you've finally given me an excuse to. You got off easy here, Shido, and you'd better hope that we don't run into each other again."

I got up, turned around, thought better of it, and said, "Oh, and before I go," and turned to kick the downed Shido right in the balls. He released a high-pitched squeaking noise as he clutched at his crotch in pain.

Then I got off the bus and joined the others, grabbing up my cricket bat on the way out.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I certainly feel better now," I said, breathing deeply in an attempt to calm myself down. I felt a hand grab on to mine and squeeze; I turned and saw Shizuka. I smiled, squeezed back, let go, and grasped my bat with both hands. "Okay, so what's the plan?"

* * *

Kohta's nail gun could be heard loud and clear in the streets as we fought off the horde of Them that we had run into. We had left the bridge in an attempt to find our own way to the East Police Station so that we could meet up with Takashi and Rei, but the streets were full of Them, and we weren't making as much progress as we would have liked. I smashed in one of Their heads with my cricket bat, and for the first time since this started, I felt … nothing. There was no remorse, regret, sickness, _nothing_. It would appear that I would finally be able to take an active part in combat without feeling horrible about it afterwards.

Saya and Shizuka were behind Saeko, Kohta and I as we fought. We were pretty badly cornered, actually, as all that was behind us was a railing that separated the road from the river. The group of Them that we were fighting were closing in slowly, and we were fighting them off effectively, but that didn't change the fact that we were essentially trapped.

I smashed in a few more heads, sending their bone and brain matter onto the pavement as their bodies crumpled to the ground. I was starting to find it rather therapeutic, actually, a great way to funnel out the excess anger from my confrontation with Shido. I was almost _enjoying_ it, to be honest with you.

"Just so you know, I'm running out of the nails!" Kohta informed us.

Saeko sent another one to its final resting place, then held out her boken. "Do you want to borrow this?"

"I really don't do hand-to-hand combat," Kohta said sheepishly.

Saeko smirked. "I can't say the same," she said. "I'm actually quite fond of it."

The situation was starting to look bad. The noise we were making with the fighting was drawing in more and more by the second, and we just couldn't kill Them all fast enough to move out before more of Them turned up. We were all being backed into a corner, and the possibility of Them overwhelming us was becoming more and more likely as time went on. I kept fighting, as did the others, but it was starting to look like we might lose this one …

… And that's when a motherfucking _motorbike_ came flying over a nearby truck like it was a God damn _ramp_!

"Holy shit," Saeko, Kohta and I said simultaneously. The best part of this? Takashi and Rei were the ones _on_ the fucking motorbike!

The motorbike landed and skidded across the road violently, sweeping a rather large number of Them off their feet and causing Them to smash Their heads off the pavement. And then, I shit you not, Rei jumped off the bike and impaled one of the damn things without even stumbling as she landed.

"Hirano!" Takashi shouted from the bike. He threw something towards Kohta, who was now surrounded by Them, which he caught … It was a revolver. Kohta had an _actual_ gun now.

Kohta raised the revolver into the air, grinned, and fired it at one of Them, narrowly missing Takashi on the bike as he fired. The bullet passed _through_ the head of the one Kohta had shot and into the head of another one, sending both of Them collapsing to the floor. "Double tap, baby," said Kohta with a manic grin on his face.

I started fighting with increased vigour as it was starting to look like we might actually come out of this alive. I started bashing in heads left and right once again, a grin tugging at my lips. It was barely a few seconds before the fight drew to a close thanks to a physics-defying stunt by Takashi and Saeko that I'm not even going to talk about because I'm only half-convinced I actually saw it happen.

"Amazing …" Shizuka gasped out.

"You can say that again," I said. My blood was really pumping through my veins, and the adrenaline rush was only just starting to die down.

"Looks like it's all cleared for now," said Saeko.

"They sure were tough to beat," said Shizuka.

"Tough for everybody but you, maybe," said Saya.

"Just be glad we're alive," I said.

"Ms Shizuka!" Rei exclaimed, running at Shizuka and wrapping her in a very tight hug … that ended in her sliding down and having her face planted right between Shizuka's breasts.

"Oh, Miyamoto!" said Shizuka happily. "What a coincident!"

"That's 'what a coincidence'," Rei corrected her with a deadpan expression on her barely visible face.

"Is there something I missed between you two?" I asked with a smirk tugging at my lips. "Getting a little too close to a student, Shizuka … shame on you." I chuckled at the look of embarrassment on both of their faces as they separated. "In all seriousness, though, it's good to see you two are all right, Komuro, Miyamoto."

"It's good to see you, too, Mr Levitt," said Takashi. He was holding the bike upright.

"This must mean Tokonosu Bridge is also blocked," Saeko said to Takashi, who turned to her and nodded.

"Right," he said. "There's no way out."

"I have to confess, I'm really glad you're okay, Komuro," admitted Saeko.

Rei was glaring daggers at her.

"Glad you're all right, too," Takashi told her.

Saya got up behind him. "What about me?" she asked with a look of irritation on her face.

Takashi suddenly started sweating bullets under her glare. "I … I'm glad you're all right, too, _all_ of you."

 _Oh, Takashi, you little player,_ I thought to myself. It was quite clear that he wasn't doing this intentionally, but Takashi was now starting to look like the protagonist of a harem animé. I didn't think that sort of thing actually happened in real life, but apparently it does. Who'd have thought?

"What are you doing?" Takashi asked Kohta, who was standing a few feet away from the rest of us, admiring the revolver in his hands.

"Komuro!" he shouted. "What is this? Where did you get it? Where are the extra bullets? This is a Smith&Wessen M37 Airweight that the police use, right?"

"Um … I'll tell you about it later," Takashi said awkwardly.

It was around this point that I noticed that the sun was starting to set. That wasn't good; there was no way we'd be safe staying outside during the night. It didn't take a genius to know that we would have to find shelter relatively quickly in order to be safe.

"We got off the bus because the road was blocked," Saeko explained to Takashi. "But we haven't been able to get across the river."

"The water has risen, so going further upstream won't help, I guess," said Saya, who had apparently gone down to the riverbank for a few moments to see how deep the water was.

"Then, what should we do?" asked Rei.

"I have a thought," said Shizuka. "It's been such a stressful day, why don't we just call it quits for now?"

"Call it a day?" said Kohta.

"Why, yes," said Shizuka. "My friend's flat is nearby. It's just a short walk from here."

"Holy shit, it is, isn't it?" I said. "Huh, I guess I got so distracted by the fighting I didn't realise where we are."

"It's my girl friend's apartment," said Shizuka. "She's always busy working and travelling with her job, so she gave me a key so I could look after the place while she's away."

"It's a nice place, too," I said. "High rise with a balcony, a fence so thick it might as well be a wall, pretty much an ideal location for spending the night at a time like this."

"There's a convenience store nearby, too," said Shizuka. "Oh, and a car! You know that one that looks like a tank?"

"It's a Humvee, Shizuka," I said. I looked specifically at Kohta as I spoke. "Shizuka's friend has a Humvee."

"A Humvee!?" Kohta exclaimed in delight. "Oh, I can't _wait_ to get a look at that thing!"

"I don't care about a Humvee as much as a shower," said Saya, running a hand through one of her ponytails. "I don't think I've ever felt dirtier in my life."

"I couldn't agree with you more," said Kohta with a hand on his chin … and he was treated to a kick to the head from Saya.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean!?" she yelled at him.

"Subtlety, Hirano, subtlety," I said as I moved to help him up. A thought hit me, and I turned to Takashi. "Komuro, do you mind if I use the bike? Circumstances over there might have changed since all this started, so I think it'd be best if one of us checks the place out first. And since I already know where it is, I think I should go."

Takashi sighed. "Okay, Mr Levitt, go for it," he said. I walked over and sat down on the bike. Barely a second later, Shizuka had climbed on behind me.

"Only one of us has to go, Shizuka," I said, smiling and amused. "I think I'll be just fine checking the place out."

"I know," she said, wrapping her arms around my waist. "But maybe I don't want you going anywhere without me."

I grinned. "Fair enough." Then I started up the bike and we were going.

We got out of sight of the others, and that's when I felt Shizuka's hands go a little … lower than was necessary. And it wasn't exactly innocent, either. She was _rubbing_ down there.

"Calm down, Shizuka, do you _want_ me to crash the bike?" I asked playfully.

"No," Shizuka said, blowing on my ear. "But you _do_ remember that Rika has a spare room, don't you? One with a _lock_ on the door?"

I sped the bike up.

* * *

"Wow, you really weren't kidding about the Humvee, Mr Levitt," said Kohta in awe as we stood just outside of Rika's place. "It's the military model, too!"

We were stood outside, looking at the Humvee in all its glory, the lights on all around it. The fence was keeping us plenty safe, and the flat was looking as impressive as ever.

"Exactly what kind of friend is she?" asked Saya.

"A fucking scary one," I muttered under my breath. The memory of Rika threatening to castrate me that one time had never quite left my mind.

"You were right about the fence, too," said Rei. "I doubt anyone will be able to jump this thing. So we should be able to get a good night's sleep."

"Let's hurry up and—" Takashi was cut off when he noticed a few of Them coming down the stairs, which was strange because the place was locked down pretty tight when I'd checked it with Shizuka earlier.

"Oh, fucking hell, someone must've jumped the fence after being bitten," I said, then sighed. "And here I was hoping to sit back and relax for a little while."

"Komuro, will this work?" Saya said, handing Takashi a wrench.

"Yeah, good enough," said Takashi, taking the tool from her. "Stay back."

"Don't take chances and be sure to cover for each other," said Saeko as we all prepared for a fight.

"Let's go!" said Takashi, and we all went charging into the fight.

That fight, while just like all the others on the surface, actually held quite a lot of significance. That was the first time that we had attacked first. We were going on the offensive rather than defending ourselves, and we barely noticed the transition at all. We had all been transformed in a little more than a day, and not one of us noticed the change until later.

After taking care of business, we went inside what would be our safe haven for the next day or two, and we could forget about Them for a little while.

* * *

 **And that's a wrap, folks! At first I thought this chapter was going to be too short—the episode having to focus on the separated group and all—and it's still come out shorter than the first two chapters, but not nearly as much as I had expected. I hope you enjoyed it, and I especially hope you enjoyed Ren decking Shido in the nose. I got quite a lot of enjoyment from writing out that scene.**

 **I'm going to take a page from Theboblinator's book (I hope you don't mind) and have them stay at Rika's apartment for an extra day, because it not only offers the main characters some down time, but it also gives the opportunity to explore that convenience store that they mention but never go to in the show. Oh, and there _will_ be a lemon next chapter, just to warn you. Just look at what happens in canon and you should know why it's definitely happening next time.**

 **Well, that's all I have to say, so see you guys later!**

 **Next Chapter: Down Time**


	4. Down Time

**You guys know something? I never thought I'd get this many chapters out for a story in the space of two weeks, but what do you know? I'm on a fucking _roll_ right now! This chapter is pretty much what the title would suggest, just the group getting some down time in between bouts of survival … oh, and there's going to be a lemon this chapter, so yeah. I'll tell you now, this is going to be changed a little from canon for the purposes of the lemon, but not so drastically that it'll be any less entertaining, I assure you. That being said, let's answer some reviews and get on with this!**

 **LordGhostStriker: He just might have. And he certainly is.**

 **war sage: Thank you.**

 **Sandshrew master 317: Thank you. That particular scene was my favourite part of the chapter to write out, and Shido certainly won't be moving for a while, you got that right.**

 **Theboblinator: Thank you very much, it's great to have your approval! I'm still thinking about how to handle that scene, actually; I have most of the story planned out by this point, but I'm still wondering what I should do when it gets to that point. Alice will certainly change things up, yes. You're quite right about that, and you'll see just how things will play out in terms of that this chapter. Thank you very much, I'll try to do you proud. Good luck with that.**

 **pryojack25: I laughed while writing it, too. I don't know about combustible, but the lemon is certainly going to … heat things up. Don't worry, I remember, and I'll get to it when I can. Thank you very much.**

 **TJMike: Thank you, I'm very glad you like it. Here you are, and a lot quicker than I expected.**

 **Savoxgut: That's fine, don't worry about it, at least you reviewed. Yes, Shido definitely had that beatdown coming, and I took an almost sadistic pleasure in writing it out. Here's the next chapter!**

 **FrancisVamp0822: He'll have some development with Takashi and Kohta for definite, but he'll probably have development with the others next chapter. Yep, I know just what you mean, and Ren is going to enjoy every moment of it (the lucky bastard).**

 **Guest: Yeah, I always found it slightly weird how so many OCs threaten Shido, but not all that many ever actually do something about him, so I just decided to have Ren give him what he has coming to him. I can't focus on only one story at a time; so many ideas for my stories run through my head that I pretty much _have_ to jump between them or else I risk forgetting some of my ideas.**

 **Gravenimage: Thank you.**

 **Well, now that that's out of the way, we can begin! Warning: this chapter is likely to be a lot shorter than usual; you will see why when the time comes.**

* * *

Down Time

This is probably the strangest thing I'm ever going to say in my life, but here goes: So, the girls were all making very loud noises while in the bathroom together. Takashi, Kohta and I were all upstairs in Rika's bedroom, attempting to get one of her storage lockers open. We could hear the girls—because when I say loud, I mean _very_ loud—and they sounded like they were having a little too much fun. There was a lot of shouting, some laughing, something that sounded like squealing at one point. Basically, they were very strange noises to hear out of context, and I was suddenly very glad that I was up here with two other males.

"Sounds like they're having fun," said Takashi in a deadpan.

"Fun doesn't even begin to cover what that sounds like …" I said awkwardly.

"Do you guys wanna go have a peak?" Kohta asked us from his spot attempting to pick the lock on the locker. "You know we're supposed to, right?"

"Throw that suggestion right out of your head, Hirano," I said, patting him on the shoulder. "I understand what it's like to be a horny teenager—I was one for a while—but trust me, peeping in on girls in a state of undress is a very good way to an early grave. Plus, my girlfriend may be in there, but looking at the other three would just make me feel like a criminal."

"Mr Levitt's right," said Takashi. "I don't wanna die just yet."

"True words of wisdom," I said, nodding at Takashi with a smile on my face. Then I sighed. "God, I wish Rika had left a spare key for these damn things. It'd make this so much easier."

"Just so you know, Mr Levitt, I'm gonna be _really_ pissed off if there's nothing in here," Takashi warned me with a light glare.

"I really wouldn't doubt him if I were you, Komuro," said Kohta. "We've already found the ammunition, so I think it'd be safe to assume that Mr Levitt is right about the guns."

"It was a bit of a stab in the dark on my part," I said, rubbing the back of my neck sheepishly. "Rika used to joke about pulling out one of her guns and shooting me, but I had no way of knowing if she was telling the truth or not."

"Oh well, it doesn't matter," said Takashi. He appeared to have grown impatient, as he took the crowbar he'd been fighting with outside and jammed the end into the crack of the locker door. "Let's just do it." We all grabbed on to the crowbar. "One … two … three …!" On three, we all pulled, and the crowbar forced the door of the locker open, unfortunately also sending the three of us toppling to the ground in the process.

"Well … at least we got it open …" I groaned as I sat up. I looked at the locker and my eyes widened considerably. "Holy shit … I guess she _was_ telling the truth."

"Yeah, I guess she was," said Takashi, who was also looking into the locker with shock. "Hey, Hirano, you might wanna check this out."

Before either of us even knew what was happening, Kohta had knocked us both aside and was staring in to the locker with an expression of manic excitement adorning his face. "I just _knew_ it!" he exclaimed with joy. "You were totally right, Mr Levitt! This is a goldmine!" The locker was filled with guns.

"You said this 'Rika' is a friend of you and Ms Shizuka, right?" Takashi asked me.

"Yeah, I guess," I said. "I only know her because Shizuka is my girlfriend, and she invited me to come around here with her once … That was a terrifying experience. You two have never experienced the horror of being in the home of a woman who would gladly castrate you for doing anything wrong, and believe me, you don't want to."

While Kohta was too entranced by the guns in the locker to react to what I'd said, Takashi visibly shuddered. "Who is she, Sarah fucking Palin?" he said.

"Not quite," I said, grinning a little. "She's a member of the SAT."

"Seriously!?" Kohta said, looking back at me, his mouth hanging open in awe. He snapped his head back round to look into the locker again. He removed an assault rifle with a small scope; the slightly crazed grin was back on his face. "Springfield M1A1 Supermatch. It's semi-automatic, but M14 series fully automatic is nothing but a waste of bullets, anyway."

"Chill out, dude," said Takashi, an awkward look on his face.

"I can put twenty bullets in the magazine," Kohta continued as if he hadn't heard—which he probably hadn't. "That's illegal in Japan." He gave a little laugh. "Illegal." He snorted.

"I don't think we're getting him back," I said. Kohta looked like he was lost in his own little world, like at that moment there was nothing at all more important than the rather large amount of fire power he had discovered inside Rika's lockers. It was, admittedly, nice to have these guys focus on something other than Them for the first time in the last two days, but at the same time there was something slightly worrying about the fact that anybody could show this much enthusiasm about guns. I grew up in England—a country where gun control is so strict that not even the _police_ have them—and as such I had always been slightly on edge when guns were involved. The thought that anyone could be this comfortable around them was a very alien idea to me …

Kohta reached back into the locker and picked out a sniper rifle. "Knight SR25 …" He took it out of the locker and got a better look at it. "No, you can't get that in Japan, so they just completely modified an AR110." He glanced back at the locker again. "What's left in the locker is a crossbow. It's a descendant of the one Robin Hood used: Barnet Wildcat C5, made in Britain. You can even kill a _bear_ with it."

I took out the crossbow. _Okay, here's something I'll be more comfortable with._ Crossbows were, oddly enough, a pretty okay thing to have back in England. One of my father's friends had one and he actually taught me how to use it when I was about seventeen. _Yeah,_ I thought, a smile stretching out across my face, _this'll do_.

Takashi also reached into the locker, and he pulled out something which Kohta had apparently missed. It was a shotgun, but that was about all I could tell about it. Like the other guns in the locker, it had a small scope on top.

Kohta saw what Takashi was holding and his eyes lit up. "That's an Ithaca N37 Riot Shotgun!" he gushed. "It's a super sick shotgun made by Americans! It played a big part in the Vietnam War, too!"

"I see," Takashi muttered. He pumped the shotgun and swung it around experimentally. I instinctively ducked as he passed it over me, honestly fearing for my life for a brief moment despite knowing it wasn't loaded, but my reaction was nowhere near as severe as Kohta's: he flung his arms in front of his body to protect himself, his eyes wide.

"Are you nuts!?" he asked Takashi, slightly hysterically. His words came out fast and loud. "Don't point that thing at anyone like that, even unloaded, but when you do—" His voice became calm and a grin returned to his face. "— _shoot to kill._ "

"… Hirano, you are actually kind of scaring me right now …" I admitted with a sheepish chuckle. "But credit where credit's due, this infinite gun knowledge you seem to have is going to be pretty damn useful when we're out there again."

Kohta grinned at me. "Thanks, Mr Levitt," he said. His eyes glanced down to the crossbow I was holding, and he nodded his head in what I think was approval.

"I hope They're the only things we have to point at …" Takashi said quietly.

We all went quiet. Any fun and joking that was to be had stopped right then and there. The thought that Takashi had just put in my head was a worrying one. Would we have to shoot at other people …? I hoped not, but I wasn't going to let potential guilt at killing another human being get in the way of our survival. If it came down to it, I wouldn't hesitate to blow as many people away as it took.

"You know, if it comes down to something like that …" said Kohta, turning his head to look at us with a smile on his face. "If I happen to get bit, don't you think twice about blasting my head off."

"Yeah, same here," said Takashi.

"My only request is that you set my body up so it looks like I'm flipping off anyone who comes across it," I said with a grin. That got the other two laughing, too, and the previous cheerful atmosphere seemed to return somewhat.

"It's a deal," said Kohta with a grin of his own. The three of us looked at each other and nodded.

After that, we got started on gun maintenance. Kohta was working at putting the right bullets in the magazines for each of the guns, and I was looking over the arrows of the crossbow to see if there were any bad ones. There weren't, and with luck I could reuse these if I had the time to pull them out of Their corpses.

"Will you help, too, Komuro?" said Kohta as he completely filled another magazine. "It's a pain in the butt to put the bullets in."

"What did you practice on, airsoft guns?" asked Takashi.

Kohta grinned. "No way," he said. "The _real_ ones."

I stopped what I was doing and looked at Kohta, my mouth agape. "You fucking _what_ , now?" I said. I was astonished far beyond my ability to be polite.

"When I went to America, I was trained by this instructor who used to work for a private military company, Blackwater, for a month. He's an ex-captain of Delta Force."

Kohta's explanation left both Takashi and I stunned.

"Oh my God, the class nerd's a card carrying member of the NRA …" Takashi said in a shaky voice. "I'm _really_ glad we're on the same side."

"Amen to that …" I said just as weakly. I couldn't believe what was happening. Just a few days ago I was a teacher, guiding these kids in the passage to their adulthood, but now … I think _they_ are going to be keeping _me_ out of trouble. "Hirano, you are absolutely fantastic, I hope you know that."

Kohta grinned smugly and we all got back to what we were doing.

"You said this chick's a member of the SAT, didn't you, Mr Levitt?" asked Takashi. I nodded. "But these guns are still illegal, aren't they?"

"It's legal to purchase the guns in parts," Kohta explained. "But it _is_ illegal to put them together in this way. The woman who lives here definitely knows what she's doing. And if you're right about her being a member of the SAT, Mr Levitt, then that makes a lot of sense."

"So you can get away with anything as long as you're a cop," said Takashi with a look of bitterness on his face.

"Basically," I said, "but I would never have the bravery to say something like that to her face. I swear, that woman threatens me so much, I can't even twitch a finger without risk of losing it." I laughed.

As much as I joked about the number of times she had threatened me, I actually got along quite well with Rika for the most part. She would threaten me jokingly, I would act scared while trying not to laugh, and we would all have a good joke about it later. I think about the only time her threats were serious was when I first started dating Shizuka, and Rika was watching me like a hawk every time we were in a room together. A couple of months in to my relationship with Shizuka, Rika seemed to get the idea that I wasn't going to just up and leave, and the three of us quite often spent weekends together. I had my willpower tested on most of those weekends, and I learned that Shizuka and Rika have one thing in common: They both get abnormally horny when drunk. It was for that very reason that I chose to forego any alcohol whenever those two were drinking together, simply so that I didn't do anything I might regret.

"An unmarried police officer normally lives in the dormitory," said Kohta. "So to think she's renting a place like this … Either her parents are rich, or the man she's dating is rich, or she's involved in some funny business."

It was none of those things. Rika was just really good at saving money. Was I going to tell them that? No. The idea that they might think I'm friends with a drug dealer or something is just too amusing to stop.

The sounds of laughter and screaming from the bathroom got louder. Takashi went out onto the balcony with a pair of binoculars we'd found in the room, while Kohta simply stared at the door of the room with a blank expression on his face.

"They should probably hold it down in there," said Kohta. He sounded slightly irritated.

"It's okay," said Takashi, not taking his eyes from the binoculars. "I know they respond to what they hear, but they're not hearing the girls."

"A miracle in itself," I said.

Kohta and I made our way out onto the balcony with Takashi. While I couldn't see very well due to the distance, I could tell from here that things were getting even worse out there. I may not have been able to see them, but I could hear the distant cries and shouts of the people still trying to cross the bridge, even though those cries were barely audible from where we stood. Somehow that made it even worse.

"I'm getting sick," said Takashi. He lowered the binoculars from his eyes and handed them to Kohta. "Here, I've had enough." He went inside when Kohta took the binoculars.

"This reminds me of that scene from _Apocalypse Now_ ," I heard Kohta mutter to himself.

I went inside after Takashi to find him just standing in the middle of the room. "Are you okay?" I asked him. He looked at me in confusion. "It seems like looking at all that has you a little shaky, is all."

Takashi smiled at me a little weakly. "I'm fine, Mr Levitt," he said. I gave him a look that said, 'Don't take me for an idiot.' He sighed. "I just couldn't look at all the bodies, people dying everywhere … it made me feel sick."

I gave him a small smile. "There's nothing wrong with that," I said. "And, as sad as it is to say this, we'll probably all get used to it pretty soon. Just try not to think about it while we're in here. We've got a safe place for the time being, so there's no point being on edge while we're all in here."

"Turn on the TV," Kohta told us from the balcony.

Takashi picked up the remote and turned the TV on. There was a man who appeared to be leading a group of protesters. The man wore a white hat and had a tooth missing.

"Don't tolerate the tyranny of the police department!" the man shouted at the protesters, who all cheered in agreement. "We strongly condemn this biological weapon, this circulation of killing pandemic developed my our government and America!"

"And this, children, is what an idiot looks like," I said, gesturing at the TV. _Why do people always blame the Americans?_ I asked in my mind. _Trump hasn't even been elected yet, so why are people already blaming America for their problems?_

"—as you can see, tensions here are running extremely high!" said the reporter in front of the camera, who could barely be heard over the top of the shouts of the protesters.

"Killing pandemic …?" said Takashi quietly.

"I guess they're talking about Them," said Kohta.

"People's first reactions to something they don't understand is to make it fit something they _do_ understand," I said. "Even when they have to twist the facts to make them fit, a group of idiots will always find a way to make a situation fit into their version of what reality should be."

"We don't know what kind of group it is," said the reporter. "According to the flier distributed by the group, their protest is to condemn those that allowed this killing pandemic to spread. It seems they believe that the biological weapon—"

"Are you serious!?" Takashi exclaimed, glaring at the TV. " _What_ biological weapon!? They know damn well that no science can explain why dead corpses walk around eating people."

"You know this is just some government propaganda," said Kohta. "Maybe the media—"

 _KA-BLAM!_

We didn't see what was happening, but we heard it, and all of the protesters were turning to look at something. There were a lot more gunshots; there was shouting and screaming, and the moans of Them could be heard quite clearly now that the protesters were all being quiet. I believe I heard a woman shouting about her daughter at one point, but I'm not entirely sure, all the noises were sort of mixed together in a display of chaos.

"See what they've done!" shouted the lead protester when the gunshots had stopped. "You see!? They're killing off citizens at random! Don't tolerate the tyranny of the police!" The protesters all brought their voices up in a cheer of agreement. If that wasn't attracting Them, I don't know what would. "If we allow them to shoot one of us, then they won't stop until they kill us all!"

The cheers rose up again, but the camera panned around slightly to show a lone police officer walking towards the head protester. He put his hand on the man's shoulder, but he shrugged it off violently and took an aggressive stance against the policeman.

"You must leave immediately," said the policeman. "I'm afraid it's too dangerous for you to be here."

"Oh, is it?" asked the lead protester with a mad grin on his face. "Any more dangerous than the _government_? Your conspiracies?"

"I'll ask one more time. You need to disband and go."

"Hell no! _You_ go!" The entire crowd of protesters took up the chant against the policeman, who simply stood there quietly as they yelled at him.

"You don't seem to understand, my friend." The policeman's voice could barely be heard over the chants of the crowd, but somehow I picked up his voice crystal clear. "I've been given strict orders to maintain public safety … by any means necessary … by whatever means I see fit." The policeman raised the revolver he had apparently been holding the whole time, pointing it directly at the head of the lead protester, who simply stood there dumbly as it was practically pressed against his forehead.

 _BANG!_

A third eye, round and oozing with blood, seemed to appear at the centre of the man's forehead, and within a moment he had collapsed to the ground. The cries and screams of the now terrified protesters were the last things we heard before the television cut to static.

I sat down on the bed as Takashi and Kohta sat in front of it. We were all struck dumb by what we'd just witnessed on the TV.

"This is insane …" Kohta mumbled.

"No shit," said Takashi, turning off the TV.

"The police aren't exactly improving things for themselves, are they?" I said. "Gunning a man down in front of his followers, what the hell were they thinking? All they've done is ensure that people continue to hate and fear them as long as this thing goes on. If anything, they've just made the panic _worse._ "

I'm sure that we would have had a discussion, but apparently fate had other plans … plans which shined pretty brightly for me, as it turned out. I felt a momentary sense of panic as a pair of arms appeared in my peripheral vision and snaked their way around my neck. It was only when the arms clung on in a hug instead of a chokehold, and I felt the familiar sensation that felt like two pillows being pressed against my back, that I relaxed slightly … but I was a little uncomfortable because of the two other people in the room.

"You've been drinking, haven't you, Shizuka?" I asked. That thought made me uncomfortable more than anything. I thought back to the 'promise' Shizuka had made while we were on the motorbike, but I knew that if she was drunk there was no way I was going to go through with it.

"No," she said with a giggle. She brought her face around and blew on my nose. I smelt nothing. "See? I'm as sober as I've ever been." Then she kissed me on the cheek. It was around this point that I noticed she was wearing nothing but a towel.

"But … you _do_ realise that Komuro and Hirano are in the room, too, right?" I said in confusion. Shizuka blinked, looked around, her eyes landing on the two in question, then she produced a little scream and ran out of the room faster than I had ever thought possible. I blinked. "Okay … you guys saw that happen, right? This isn't me just going crazy or anything?"

"No …" said Takashi. He looked as confused as I felt. "… That _definitely_ just happened …"

Kohta made no comment. He instead walked out onto the balcony with a face as red as a tomato.

I sighed and stood from the bed. "Well, duty calls," I said. I couldn't help the grin that broke out on my face. "I'll probably see you guys in the morning … or, on second thought, later tonight. We might want to keep watch in cycles so that everybody gets some sleep. Anyway, see you later." I walked out of the room.

I made my way down the hall towards the room I knew Shizuka would have ran in to: Rika's spare room, the one with the lock on the door. I felt excitement well up within me as thoughts of what we would be doing in there worked their way into my mind. I got to the room, slipped through the door, and immediately locked said door behind me.

* * *

 **LEMON ALERT! LEMON ALERT! SKIP PAST THIS IF YOU DON'T LIKE READING LEMONS!**

* * *

I turned around and saw Shizuka sitting on the bed, still clad in her towel, and blushing exponentially from the previous incident. I smiled at her and moved to remove my shirt. I wasn't the most muscular guy in the world, but I tried to keep in shape, so there was a little bit of muscle on display. Shizuka caught a look at me shirtless, and while the blush remained on her face, the reason behind it changed.

She stood up and her towel fell to the floor, revealing her to me in all her naked glory. Her magnificently large breasts jiggled slightly as she made her way towards me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me. Our tongues swirled around in each other's mouths for a few moments before we separated, a trail of saliva still connecting our mouths. My pants were becoming uncomfortably tight.

I grinned down at Shizuka. "I guess it's a good thing that Rika soundproofed this room after my first visit," I said.

Shizuka laughed. "Yeah, it is."

Our lips joined again. Shizuka ran her hands down my chest, while mine explored up and down her back, squeezing her ass whenever they got low enough. I felt Shizuka's hands roam lower on my body, and then one of them grasped the hardness at the centre of the tent that had formed in my pants. I groaned into our kiss and Shizuka laughed before separating from me, licking her lips in a seductive manner.

"My, my, you got me a present?" she said, licking her lips again and glancing down at my crotch. "Mind if I unwrap it?"

"Be my guest," I said with a smirk. "It's all yours, baby."

Just as I finished saying this, she was kissing me again and her tongue was in my mouth. I held her head and pulled her in deeper, all the while I could feel her hands unclasping the belt I wore. The belt fell and my trousers were unzipped, leaving me in nothing but my shoes, socks and boxer shorts. The shoes and socks were kicked off in a heartbeat, and I could feel Shizuka's hand, still grasping onto that important part of my body, rubbing back and forth, making me hiss and groan in pleasure as our heated kiss continued.

It was only when Shizuka bumped into and fell onto the bed that I realised we had been subconsciously moving towards it while we had been making out. I grinned as she crawled backwards so that she could lie on the bed properly. She smirked alluringly up at me with half-lidded eyes.

"The doctor will see you now," she said, and that pushed me right over the edge.

I removed my boxer shorts in one swift movement and crawled onto the bed. As I crawled along Shizuka's body, I placed kisses along her body as I went. Her inner thigh, to her stomach, to her breasts, to her neck, and finally one lingering kiss on her mouth. I smiled down at her, and her up at me. Then I thrusted forward and entered her. The warmth of her insides wrapped tightly around me caused me to grunt out in pleasure, and the sensual moan she released upon my entry was music to my ears. I leant down and inserted my tongue into her mouth once again, frenching her in an almost savage manner as I began pull back and thrust forward with my hips.

The pace of my breathing picked up as I moved in and out of Shizuka. She released a sensual moan every time I thrusted forward, and they were becoming louder as we went on. I picked up the pace a little with every thrust, doing so slightly harder each time.

I brought my head down and my hands up as I began to groped and fondle Shizuka's large breasts, kissing and biting the nipples. Her hands found the back of my head and pushed it into her bust, urging me to continue, which I had no problem doing. I increased the pace of my hip movements all the while, and Shizuka began to buck her hips along with my movements. Her moans of pleasure were become something more akin to screams, and I once again felt relief over the fact that the room was soundproof.

I took my attention away from her breasts and brought my head up to begin french kissing her again. Our kisses were becoming less sensual and more sloppy as our sexual excitement increased. Shizuka tore herself out of the kiss and brought her head down, biting me hard on the shoulder. I hissed in slight pain, but I found that it was quite pleasurable, and the force behind my thrusts was increased again.

I could feel my end approaching and, seeing as I had neglected to wear protection, I thought that pulling out and allowing myself to release onto Shizuka's stomach would be the best course of action. I continued to thrust into her for a few more moments, her moans now becoming screams of pleasure, and attempted to pull out … but Shizuka had other ideas, it would seem. Her legs wrapped tightly around my waist and she once again pulled my head down so that it was lodged between her breasts. The pleasure of her drawing me even deeper into her with her legs drove any sensible thoughts from my mind, and I simply continued to push and pull myself in and out of her as fast and as hard as I could.

Shizuka let out one final cry of pleasure and I felt her inner walls clamp around me. Her orgasm milking me for all I was worth triggered my own, and with a grunt of pleasure I came inside my beautiful blonde girlfriend.

* * *

 **LEMON IS OVER! IT IS SAFE PAST THIS POINT!**

* * *

I collapsed onto Shizuka, using her breasts as cushions as I caught my breath. The intensity and pleasure of the sex had wiped away all the stress the last two days had put me under, and all that was on my mind was the beautiful woman I was currently naked in bed with. I glanced up at her face as I felt her hand resting upon my head. I smiled at her before leaning up and giving her a kiss.

"I love you, Shizuka" I said as we separated. "God, there are no words for how much I love you."

"I love you, too, Ren," she said with a radiant smile. She glanced downwards and her smile became a smirk. "You're still hard?" She leant up and kissed me, allowing her tongue to linger in my mouth for a few seconds. "Why don't you let your private nurse fix that?"

I smirked, too. "Sounds great," I said, "but first …" I reached over her and opened a drawer just beside the bed. I pulled out a small packet with a condom in it and waved it in front of Shizuka's face. "We might want to make use of the stash this time."

Shizuka blushed in embarrassment when she realised we had not used protection, but then nodded. I slipped it on, we kissed, and then I entered her again.

No one came to get me for guard duty. We found out the next day that the kids had eaten without us.

* * *

 **Okay, guys, that was my first lemon, so tell me what you think of it. Once again, I expected this chapter to be a lot shorter when I started, but I'm not going to complain that it turned out this length. And I'll admit, it took a lot more effort to write this than it usually does. I wrote most of this thing today, as I'm releasing it, and I woke up feeling a little shitty this morning, so writing this was a bit difficult because of my slightly foul mood.**

 **I've found that I need to have my OC take the crossbow from the locker during that scene, because it always kind of annoyed me how they draw attention to it and then we never see anybody use it. So if nothing else, my characters give the crossbow a purpose. And yes, I _did_ take a shot at Donald Trump in this chapter.**

 **In the next chapter we'll be taking a trip to that convenience store they mention in the show, and if I can find a way to slot it in (hehehe) there might even be another lemon before the shit hits the fan and everyone has to leave. I haven't decided yet.**

 **Next Chapter: Supply Run**


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